Pressure to reduce port pollution has been motivated in part by booming trade. Annual trade at the ports, currently about $305 billion, is expected to double by 2020, port authorities said.
Cleaner trucks would save up to $5.9 billion in health costs to workers and local residents, according to an economic impact study commissioned by the Port of Los Angeles. The study predicts the cleanup also would clear the way for port expansion projects that could generate 300,000 to 600,000 jobs by 2025.
But because the ports account for 25% of diesel particulate emissions in the Los Angeles Basin — and more particulate-forming nitrogen oxide emissions than all 6 million cars in the region — neither port has been able to complete an environmental impact report for any infrastructure improvement project in six years.
