Clean Air Program: First Los Angeles / Long Beach, now Oakland

We’ve said before that it was only a matter of time before Oakland followed suit and it appears that time is now:

The plan includes a road map for raising $520 million over several years. Approximately $350 million would come from per-container fees that would be assessed on ocean carriers along with matching government funds. The remaining $170 million would come from bonds approved by California voters in November 2006.

Along with other pollution mitigation, the money would be used to replace or retrofit approximately 1,900 older polluting diesel trucks and to rebuild the Seventh Street rail crossings at the heart of the port.

Emphasis ours. Sound familiar? As expected, the per-container-fee and the prospect of another nightmare if local authorities try to force the port trucking industry into the hands of the Teamsters has local port customers nervous:

The possibility of container fees and a proposal to restructure the harbor trucking industry sets up a struggle with port customers and probably will mean litigation.

Late Monday, 54 companies, including Gap Inc., Levi Strauss. J.C. Penney and Target Corp., as well as trade associations, wrote Oakland Mayor Ronald Dellums saying the proposals violate state and federal law and impose an unfair burden on those moving goods by container.

It’s important to note that this is all still in the beginning stages and that the port is merely “considering” a set of goals to work with. Nonetheless, while clean air is a goal that I believe everyone involved with the port shares, they should learn from the current mess that our neighbors down south are currently involved in and heed the words of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Assocation:

The Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, which represents the ocean carriers and terminal operators that are tenants of the West Coast ports, urged commissioners in a letter Monday to be cautious about imposing container fees due to competition with other ports.