The Port of Long Beach had a golden opportunity this week to deliver cleaner air and longer lives to Southern California communities by investing in pollution-free electric trucks. Instead, in a major blow to efforts to improve public health in some of the most polluted neighborhoods in the nation, port officials voted to use precious clean air funds to subsidize the transition to trucks that run on “natural” gas—a technology that is, by many measures, just as polluting as diesel.
This vote will have disastrous consequences for Long Beach residents. It will mean more air pollution, more asthma attacks, and more missed school and work days. To add insult to injury, the Port’s decision to deny our communities meaningful air quality gains was based, at least in part, on an gas industry astroturf campaign that dates back to 2017.
Here’s the backstory. Years ago, when port officials first agreed to tackle pollution from diesel trucks, they set up a series of community engagement meetings to allow residents to provide input on the technologies best positioned to tackle their air quality problem. Community members turned out en masse at public meetings to support the transition to clean trucks—but, as a groundbreaking piece of investigative journalism recently revealed, the gas industry paid Long Beach residents to show grassroots community support for natural gas trucks.
This astroturf campaign—funded by the misleadingly-named Clean Energy Fuels Corp, an influential fossil fuel front group owned by two of the largest oil companies in the world—succeeded in opening the door to polluting natural gas trucks, and laid the groundwork for the vote at the Port of Long Beach this week.
Our communities have been treated like a sacrifice zone for so many years. We deserve real, clean energy solutions that will deliver immediate air quality benefits, not more polluting technologies pushed by the fossil fuel industry at the expense of our health.
Once again, the Port of Long Beach has failed us. To deliver the clean air gains we desperately need, we need air regulators at the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the California Air Resources Board to step up with strong standards to advance the transition to electric trucks.
For too many people in Long Beach, tackling pollution from the Port of Long Beach is a life-or-death issue. In one Long Beach zip code, air quality is so bad that the risk of developing cancer from exposure to toxic air pollutants is 99 percent higher than in the Greater Los Angeles region. This kind of health risk is unacceptable.
The Port of Long Beach has profited handsomely for decades by largely ignoring our calls for clean air and pollution-free electric trucks. Now, on the cusp of an important victory, port officials once again sided with industry at the expense of our health. Air regulators have a responsibility to deliver the clean air our communities deserve.
Want to learn more and get involved in advocating for clean transportation in California? Check out the My Generation Campaign's website here!