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Truck traffic at the Port of Oakland

The Port of Los Angeles can go ahead with a novel plan to fight pollution, thanks to a court ruling last week. Will the Port of Oakland now follow?

The program gives the Port more power to regulate emissions from trucks – and requires all drivers to be employed by trucking companies. A federal judge denied the American Trucking Association's efforts to halt the program last Thursday.

Valerie Lapin, of the Oakland Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports, said the Port of Oakland is next.

“For Oakland, it paves the way for us to move forward with a program that’s modeled after the LA plan,” said Lapin.

The way it works is that the Port is like a landlord, and trucking companies must sign a lease promising to keep their trucks running clean. Requiring all drivers to be employed by companies eases the financial strain on independent truck drivers who must shoulder the cost of buying cleaner trucks or retrofitting the old ones, Lapin said

But Mark Caipo, president of Oakland trucking company PCTI, said that this clean trucks program, which is supported by labor unions, isn’t about the environment.

“It’s really a labor issue and not a green issue,” said Caipo, whose trucks are driven by independent contractors. “That’s our model, and we like our model.”

The Port of Oakland – with trucks always coming and going – has long been a source of diesel pollution, which hits West Oakland particularly hard. The California Air Resources Board now requires that all trucks be retrofitted to reduce emissions. More stringent requirements are set to take effect in 2014.

Port of Oakland spokeswoman Maralyn Sandifur said in an email that the Port will take a wait-and-see attitude.

“It's unclear at this time how long it will take for the Port of Los Angeles case to be adjudicated, and what impacts, if any, there will be at other ports since the American Trucking Associations is reportedly planning to appeal this latest decision,” wrote Sandifur.

In Los Angeles, the clean truck program has reduced diesel pollution by 70 percent, banned 10,000 older model trucks and provided $56 million in subsidies to buy cleaner trucks, according to Lapin. The ruling is being appealed by the American Trucking Association.