Clean Air Action Plan Update Surfaces Long Simmering Concerns

Read excerpts of Pacific Environment’s Dawny’all Heydari’s statements made at the latest Clean Air Action Plan update meeting below. To read the full article click here:

“What is even more challenging is the enormous and growing levels of ship pollution that port communities are experiencing,” Heydari said later, near the meeting’s end. “In 2021 we saw the equivalent in particulate matter emissions, carcinogenic particular matter emissions from ships emitted into the South Coast air basin as 100,000 big rig trucks per day.”

“You’re unlikely, if not unable, to meet your nitrogen oxide reduction commitment by 2023 of 59% compared to 2005,” said Heydari, who led organizing efforts to get those resolutions passed. “This should all be a wake-up call to set all those targets that were talked about earlier, and to set a zero-emission ship standard to send a strong market signal from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the largest port complex in the Western hemisphere, that the market needs to evolve, and rapidly accelerate zero emission solutions.”

“Policymakers have power in shaping the market, Heydari pointed out. “We shouldn’t just wait for corporations to do the right thing, we should force them to do the right thing with policies, including a zero-emission ship standard to complement the cargo handling equipment and drainage truck requirements by 2030 and 2035.”