Loud & Clear - Support for The Clean Ports Act!
“ This bill is a simple way for Washington to help local governments boost the green job sector, reduce pollution, improve public health, and help responsible businesses grow and compete to strengthen the national economy, and it belongs in the transportation reauthorization bill. We commend Rep. Nadler and look forward to working with both chambers of Congress to remove this barrier to progress.”
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“If these drivers were in a position to purchase and care for environmentally-friendly trucks with their current wages, the air pollution that threatens to impede our growth and efficiency wouldn’t be an issue in the first place. Modernizing the port is a long-term investment that merits real capital and real commitment between port authorities and private businesses – not workers behind the wheel.”
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Here in Los Angeles, we are proud to be making an important contribution to the national goal of cleaner air and ‘greener’ energy. We urge lawmakers in Washington to update federal law and allow a first-of-its-kind emissions reduction initiative like the Clean Truck Program to flourish.”
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~ Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor, City of Los Angeles
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“Creating good, green jobs is our number one priority. I’ve visited ports in this country and others, and I know we can have a more efficient, sustainable and productive port. We can make the Port of Seattle more competitive in the long run if we stop pinning the costs of clean truck technology on individual men and women trying to make ends meet.”
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“Our collective failure to protect the public from diesel pollution is a moral outrage and a shame on our nation. Fortunately, the Obama Administration appreciates that Americans want and deserve clean air and the sustainable jobs that accompany it. In the case of Los Angeles, there’s a proven track record of success…Congress should embrace this local green-growth model and take action to protect it.”
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~ Peter Lehner & Carl Pope, Executive Director,
NRDC and Chairman,
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The Clean Ports Act is the singular and simplest solution to ‘green’ this blue-collar workforce and eliminate the sweatshops on wheels that have plagued a critical U.S. industry for too long. Congress should look under the hood and fix the outdated federal laws that are stalling economic and environmental progress and put America’s workers back on the road to recovery.”
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I struggle every week because the trucking companies force me to pay for my truck, gasoline, tolls, maintenance and expensive repairs – but I am not eligible for basic things like Social Security, unemployment or even workers’ comp if I get hurt on the job. I feel like I work in a sweatshop on wheels. The system is broken and I want the law to be changed so I can drive a clean truck, have a better future for my family, and even send my son to college.”
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~ Daniel Ortiz, 9-year truck driver, Ports of New York & New Jersey
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“For too long we’ve been offered a false choice between economic growth and environmental sustainability. Today, I am calling on our Congress to pass legislation that will empower ports to implement the LA Clean Truck Program across the country.”
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~ Michael Bloomberg, Mayor, City of New York
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This important legislation will amend truck-deregulation law so that states and their political subdivisions can enact and enforce effective clean truck programs that provide appropriate workplace protections for the drivers of the trucks at these ports and improve the quality of life for millions of people who live and work in port-adjacent communities.”
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~Wade Henderson, President & CEO, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
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“Our nation’s ports need the tools to protect public health by holding industry accountable to a more responsible means of transporting goods. Unless Congress brings transportation law into the 21st Century, we will fail to permanently reduce the toxic diesel pollutants that are contributing to serious illnesses such as asthma and cancer amongst children, port drivers and residents.”
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In Apollo’s forthcoming Transportation Manufacturing Action Plan, we call for an amendment to the Federal Motor Carrier Act to allow states, cities, and port governing bodies to regulate the emissions of trucks coming in and out of port facilities and promote the expansion of successful green ports initiatives. This bill directly advances this recommendation and we would like to express our full support for its immediate passage.”
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“We thank our Members of Congress for refusing to let powerful outside interests roll back all the green jobs and pollution clean-up we achieved in Southern California. It’s unconscionable to permit a greedy industry that feels entitled to zero regulations hide behind an overlooked, outdated statute while workers, residents and taxpayers pay the real economic and environmental price for their dirty tricks.”
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