Long Beach City officials came together with the Port of Long Beach Wednesday to celebrate California’s Clean Air Day while unveiling one of the eight new zero-emission cargo trucks that will soon be in use at the port.
California Clean Air Day is a statewide effort to bring attention to air quality in California, particularly regarding greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. The event started five years ago, and cities often participate by encouraging residents to use more climate-friendly transportation such as the Metro or other public transit.
“A zero-emission future is no longer a dream, but a goal. I’m happy to hear how we’re gradually improving with reducing emissions in our port,” Councilmember Mary Zendejas said. “Our port is literally in our backyard.”
While the Port of Long Beach is one of the major sources of income for the city and provides thousands of jobs, ports are a significant generator of greenhouse gas emissions.
The Port of Long Beach has made a consistent effort to “green up” the industry as much as possible, having adopted its Green Port Policy in 2005.
The electric Volvo and Kenworth trucks are the port’s next step in moving away from using internal combustion engines. In addition to the Volvo electric truck, the city also displayed a full-size model of an Electrify America charging station.
“We’re the first seaport to have public charging stations for truck drivers,” said Mario Cordero, the Port of Long Beach executive director. “And we’re the only seaport that has as much as 17% of our cargo handling equipment that’s already zero [emissions].”
Cordero mentioned that 17% is not “mission accomplished,” but an important step towards a greener port.
“Change is hard; change takes vision; change takes determination,” said Tom Modica, Long Beach city manager. “It takes a city like Long Beach with the port to say we want things better, and we want to change it. We were not going to settle for the status quo.”
