The Jersey City Independent"

The Port Authority and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a plan to replace some of the heaviest truck polluters at area ports and completely phase out older trucks in the coming years.

The $28 million program, partly funded by a $7 million EPA grant, is designed to encourage the owners of up to 636 pre-1994 trucks that regularly serve the port to purchase newer vehicles. Truckers are eligible if they regularly call on the Port Authority’s marine terminals.

The agency also says it will not allow pre-1994 trucks to operate in the ports beginning January 1 of next year. In addition, trucks not equipped with engines that meet or exceed 2007 federal emissions standards will be banned beginning January 1, 2017.

“Trucks and equipment used at ports are a significant source of pollution in the communities that surround them,” EPA Region 2 administrator Judith Enck says in a statement. “Efforts like the Port Authority’s new truck replacement program and the much broader sustainability agreement signed today will go a long way toward cutting this pollution and improving air quality and public health. Reducing dirty diesel emissions will protect the health of truck drivers and the workers at the port, along with the nearby community.”

The initiatives are the result of months of discussions undertaken by members of the Port Authority’s Truck Working Group, a coalition comprising members of state and private sector environmental organizations, trucking groups, labor and the maritime industry.

The Coalition for Healthy Ports, which is made up of various environmental, labor and community groups, says the Port Authority’s actions are a welcomed initial step, but that much more is needed to truly clean up the air while not unfairly putting the economic burden on port truckers.

“It will take far greater strides to achieve and sustain clean air,” Amy Goldsmith, chair of the coalition and executive director of the New Jersey Environmental Federation, says in a statement.

“The only thing aggressive about this environmental measure is that it places a severe economic burden on port truck drivers who average $10-11 an hour and lack a safety net, rather than the giant shipping companies and trucking outfits that profit from goods movement,” she says. “Under the current plan individual truck drivers, precariously employed under the guise of ‘independent contractor’ by their companies will be required to assume massive debt to purchase cleaner trucks in order to continue working at the port. These individual loans, subject to qualification and good credit, will be subsidized by more than $28 million in grants and loans funded by taxpayer dollars.”

Under the financial incentive program, truck drivers are eligible for a 25 percent grant toward the total purchase price of a replacement truck and low-interest financing for up to 75 percent of the total purchase price of a replacement truck. More information about the program is available at www.replacemytruck.org.

“We have worked closely with all stakeholders to make sure that this new program will help clean up the pollution at our ports, and, in the process, ensure that we do not overburden our already struggling port and trucking industry,” Port Authority executive director Chris Ward says in a statement.

But Goldsmith contends that the port and trucking industry is better suited to take on the burden of environmental upgrades than individual contractors.

“We strongly advocate for a plan that requires the capitalized shipping and trucking industry to take responsibility for cleaner commerce through company-owned fleets, driven by employees instead of so-called independent contractors,” she says.

For more on the fight over clean air — and who will pay for it — at the port, check out our August 2009 story, “Port Drivers and Advocates Push for Trucking Reform.”