Ports of LA, Long Beach launch port truck fee after years of planning

Newsom by not allowing oil drilling in California and trying to shut down the agriculture industry, has created massive inflation in California.  The demented Joe Biden gas given up us the inflation in 40 years.  Now L.A. Mayor Garcetti, maybe angry that he will never be an Ambassador, has decided to create inflation for L.A. and the nation.

“The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have officially launched their Clean Trucks Fee, an important milestone in their ambitious efforts to move toward zero-emission operations — a goal port executives and the mayors of their respective cities celebrated on Friday, April 1.

The fee, which began Friday, will collect $10 per twenty-foot equivalent unit on loaded drayage trucks entering or leaving container terminals at the twin ports, the two busiest in the nation. (TEU is the standard measurement for containers, though most are larger than that.)

In the midst of massive inflation, just before a major Recession, Garcetti is piling on.  The truckers will not pay the new fee (tax).  It will be the consumers.  Any wonder Democrats are in trouble—instead of rolling back taxes, they are adding them.

Ports of LA, Long Beach launch port truck fee after years of planning

By DONNA LITTLEJOHN, Daily Breeze, 4/1/22 

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have officially launched their Clean Trucks Fee, an important milestone in their ambitious efforts to move toward zero-emission operations — a goal port executives and the mayors of their respective cities celebrated on Friday, April 1.

The fee, which began Friday, will collect $10 per twenty-foot equivalent unit on loaded drayage trucks entering or leaving container terminals at the twin ports, the two busiest in the nation. (TEU is the standard measurement for containers, though most are larger than that.)

“We expect just in the first year alone that this will generate $45 million at each port,” Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia said at a news conference, held at 4Gen Logistics, a family-owned port drayage company that will be a zero-emissions company by 2025.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, meanwhile, predicted the effort will be historic.

“I think this is one of those moments that, when we stop and look back,” Garcetti said, “will be one of the most significant of our lives.”

Garcetti was talking, of course, about efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change.

The ports have set a goal of transitioning to an entirely zero-emissions truck fleet by 2035.

Port equipment is set to transition by 2030.

“Now is the call to action,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka. “We’ve got to step it up from here with even more investors.”

The officials who spoke Friday stood in front of trucks that, Seroka said, cost $1 million each — underscoring one of the biggest challenges that lie ahead.

“The transitioning of all of this equipment on dock and on the roads is a monumental task,” he said. “The investment in today’s prices is more than 10 billion U.S. dollars and we have to get started quickly.”

Establishing the infrastructure to include charging and fueling stations will also be a challenge.

Exemptions for the Clean Truck Fund fee will initially be provided for containers hauled by zero-emission trucks and low-nitrogen oxide-emitting (low-NOx) trucks.

The fees are to be paid by cargo owners, though concerns linger that they may get passed on to truck drivers, an issue both harbor commissions have pledged to watch closely.

“No trucker will pay the clean truck fund rate,” said Port of Long Beach harbor commission President Steven Neal. “(It) will be paid by the cargo owners and their authorized agents.”

The combined effort of both ports — which together make up the largest cargo gateway in the nation — is breaking new ground, said Los Angeles harbor commission President Jaime Lee.

“No other port complex in the world,” lee said, “is driving a changeover to cleaner technologies to this magnitude.”