The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach received a top honor for their Clean Truck Fund initiative, which aims to support the transition from gas-fueled trucks to electric-powered, officials announced Thursday.
The Southern California Association of Governments recently recognized the ports during the 2024 SCAG Sustainability Awards ceremony, which aims to celebrate efforts to improve the mobility, livability, prosperity and sustainability of the Southern California region.
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach garnered the award this year in the Clean Cities: Alternative Fuels and Infrastructure category.
“The creation of the Clean Truck Fund was a bold, necessary step in our efforts to curb truck-related greenhouse gases and nitrogen oxide emissions at our ports,” Los Angeles Harbor Commission President Lucille Roybal-Allard said in a statement. “It’s an honor to be recognized for our efforts around this industry-leading program that promotes cleaner air and more sustainable goods movement.”
Created to help accelerate the development of zero-emission (ZE) technology, the Clean Truck Fund collects a rate of $10 per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) on loaded import and export cargo containers hauled by drayage trucks as they enter or leave container terminals. Rate collection began in April 2022.
Through its first 24 months at the two ports, the CTF collected a total of $153.7 million, funds which are being allocated to support incentives for purchase of ZE drayage trucks and related charging infrastructure.
The CTF program builds on the ports’ original Clean Truck Program approved in 2008, which mandated the phasing out of older, more polluting trucks serving the San Pedro Bay port complex. Since that time, air pollution from trucks at the complex is down more than 90%.
Today, the vast majority of the 23,000-plus trucks in the ports’ drayage truck registry are diesel-fueled, which the CTF aims to change through the transition to ZE trucks that eliminate emissions at the tailpipe.
“The communities of Southern California deserve the cleanest fleet of drayage trucks in the world, and the San Pedro Bay ports are committed to that goal,” Long Beach Harbor Commission President Bobby Olvera Jr. said in a statement. “We thank the Southern California Association of Governments for recognizing the ports’ noteworthy efforts to transition to zero-emissions trucks.”
