Greater than 1,000 diesel-powered cargo vans — which ought to’ve been banned from serving California ports — have been granted entry to the ports of Los Angeles and Lengthy Seashore resulting from inaction from the Biden administration, in line with harbor data.
In April 2023, the California Air Sources Board voted to ban fossil fuel-powered huge rigs from acquiring new registrations to serve the state’s 12 main seaports, a landmark rule that was slated to enter impact on Jan. 1.
However one yr later, the U.S. Environmental Safety Company has not granted a waiver for California’s so-called Superior Clear Fleets rule. Because of this, state air regulators have been unable to implement the regulation, which has allowed trucking corporations and unbiased operators to proceed including diesel-snorting huge rigs that may pollute port communities for as much as a decade.
For the reason that begin of the yr, greater than 1,200 vans have obtained new registrations to maneuver cargo on the ports of Los Angeles and Lengthy Seashore, in line with information obtained by the Los Angeles Instances. About 92% of the newly registered vans had diesel-powered engines, that are identified to emit cancer-causing particles and planet-warming carbon emissions.
The Superior Clear Fleets rule is certainly one of eight clean-air insurance policies that California regulators are nonetheless ready for the Biden administration to log off on. Collectively, these guidelines have been anticipated to forestall 11,000 untimely deaths and supply $116 billion in well being advantages over the following three many years, in line with the American Lung Assn.
However that assumed the foundations could be carried out on time.
Seven of the eight pending insurance policies ought to’ve already gone into impact. The federal inaction has resulted in delays in adopting zero-emission applied sciences or lowering emissions for vans, boats, trains, development equipment and garden tools. And the deferred coverage implementation may have nationwide implications, as a number of different states have expressed curiosity in adopting California’s extra stringent guidelines fairly than the EPA’s.
Heading into an unpredictable election yr when the presidency and each chambers of Congress are up for grabs, environmental advocates need to see these guidelines prioritized.
“Any additional delay within the waiver course of actually does danger that we’re going to see extra diesel vans on the roads or working on the ports,” mentioned Will Barrett, nationwide senior director of fresh air coverage with the American Lung Assn. “We’re additionally going to see extra gasoline-powered tools like leaf blowers and lawnmowers when these gross sales ought to have been stopped. The transition to zero-emission know-how in these sectors is delayed, and due to that, we’re involved that we’re simply going to see this tools dwell on, placing out extra air pollution for longer than it ought to have.”
The EPA declined to touch upon the addition of extra diesel vans at Southern California ports and the pending Superior Clear Fleets waiver.
Environmental consultants say the Biden administration has been tied up with its personal jam-packed federal environmental agenda, which can have slowed the assessment course of for California’s guidelines. Previously yr, the EPA has authorised new guidelines for automobiles, heavy-duty vans, new coal- and gas-fired energy crops and methane-leaking oil wells.
These federal guidelines are anticipated to have little bearing in California, the place state rules are already extra strict.
As a result of its notoriously poor air high quality, California holds the excellence as the one state that may regulate automobile emissions, as long as it obtains permission from the EPA. The state has used these powers to undertake groundbreaking guidelines, equivalent to requiring automobiles to be outfitted with catalytic converters and test engine lights.
“That’s the dance that’s been happening because the mid-Nineteen Sixties,” mentioned Ann Carlson, a UCLA environmental legislation professor and former transportation czar with the Biden administration. “California leads, partly, as a result of EPA grants its waiver. Then California pushes the remainder of the nation.”
Final week, Gov. Gavin Newsom and state rulemakers touted information that the sale of recent zero-emission vans had doubled in 2023 in contrast with the prior yr, placing the state two years forward of its objectives. This largely resulted from the gross sales of hundreds of medium-duty pickup vans, equivalent to Ford’s F-150 Lightning and Rivian’s R1 lineup.
Zero-emission huge rigs stay a small fraction of gross sales and current fleets serving state ports.
All these cargo containers that come into the Port of L.A., seen right here in March, should go someplace. For now, most might be aboard diesel-powered huge rigs.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Instances)
Requested concerning the excellent Superior Clear Fleets rule, state officers have been optimistic the Biden administration would take motion.
“We’re after all eagerly awaiting the U.S. EPA to grant our waiver, and we anticipate them to take motion very quickly,” mentioned Steven Cliff, government director of the California Air Sources Board.
“We’re seeing 1 in 6 new vans bought is zero emissions,” Cliff added, “and going ahead, that’s going to learn Californians, particularly those that dwell close to ports who’ve been most impacted by air pollution.”
Practically 23,000 cargo vans are registered with the Port of Los Angeles, the busiest container port within the Western Hemisphere. About 94% of these are diesel vans, and one other 5% burn pure fuel. One p.c are zero-emission: 271 cargo vans are battery-electric, and 9 are hydrogen fuel-cell.
The Port of Los Angeles introduced final yr that it had diminished diesel particulate matter by 88% since 2005, due, partly, to raised controls for ships and cleaner truck engines.
The Superior Clear Fleets rule was anticipated to quickly speed up zero-emission adoption, beginning with the 2024 ban on fossil-fuel truck registrations. Within the yr main as much as that deadline, trucking corporations went on a shopping for spree, in line with public data.
Greater than 9,000 vans obtained new registrations at each ports in 2023 — virtually triple the quantity registered in 2018. The overwhelming majority of those vans had diesel-powered engines.
The registration of diesel vans continued into the primary half of 2024. Greater than 1,100 diesel vans have been registered on the ports to date this yr. Seventy-six electrical vans and 19 hydrogen vans obtained approval to maneuver cargo in the identical time.
Many truck drivers serving the ports are unbiased owner-operators, working their very own small companies with their huge rigs as an alternative of working for a big firm with a fleet. They’ve expressed considerations concerning the excessive upfront prices of buying electrical vans, that are considerably dearer than diesel-powered fashions.
Mercer Transportation Co., an owner-operator transportation firm, registered probably the most vans to date in 2024, enrolling 131 diesel vans at each ports, together with a number of with engines over a decade outdated. Efficiency Staff Freight Methods Inc., a Santa Fe Springs-based firm, launched probably the most zero-emission autos, with 23 electrical vans.
Underneath the fleets rule, the present fleet of diesel and fuel vans could be allowed to go to the ports till they reached 18 years outdated or a most of 800,000 miles traveled. Vehicles that exceed 800,000 miles pushed can function for less than 13 years.
Agmark Transportation registered a diesel truck with an engine from the yr 2000, which might not have been allowed if the EPA had granted California’s waiver.
The delayed rule would additionally forestall any fossil-fuel truck from shifting cargo on the ports in 2035. However environmental advocates would nonetheless wish to understand how the state plans to offset any unintended air pollution and carbon emissions ensuing from late implementation.
“What we totally anticipate and strongly endorse is, when these waivers are signed and official, something that has been carried out to extend air pollution past what was designed in these applications actually must be addressed rapidly,” mentioned Barrett, of the American Lung Assn. “If that’s the addition of lots of of diesel vans into the port drayage fleet, we’d name on our state companies to have a look at these and see what they will do to get these out of the fleet as rapidly as attainable.”
