The governing boards for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Wednesday postponed a vote that would tighten the goals of the ports' jointly developed environmental programs.
Port officials said the delay was to offer the public more time to review the proposed updates to the ports' Clean Air Action Plan, an omnibus document detailing the two ports' varied programs aimed at reducing ports-generated pollution.
The update to the CAAP has been spurred by the rapid attainment of many of the goals set down when the document was crafted in 2006. One program contained in the CAAP, which targeted truck-generated diesel air pollution, reached the original CAAP emission reduction goals nearly two years ahead of schedule, due in large part to a rapid implementation of a more than $600 million turnover of the current drayage fleet by the trucking industry.
Port officials, who hope to vote on the CAAP update sometime in November, also said that the vote delay would afford the two ports additional time "to clarify the document for industry and other stakeholders." In a statement, the ports specifically mention that staff from the two ports staff plans to sit down with rail industry representatives to discuss the CAAP update's proposed measures on long haul locomotives, possibly to seek an equivalent alternative.
