Posted on 11/27/2009 7:55:12 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Filiberto Cervantes has already separated from his wife and kids, lost his car, moved into his truck and says he subsists largely on a diet of $1 cheese burritos. But Jan. 1 looms like a date with the grim reaper himself.
...
Cervantes is among thousands of truckers servicing the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex who are facing a day of reckoning this New Year's. That's because Jan. 1 is the day new clean-air guidelines go into effect at the ports, banning all pre-1994 trucks -- as well as 1994-2003 rigs that have not been retrofitted with costly diesel particulate filters.
The bans are part of the much-acclaimed "clean trucks" initiative that authorities say has already cut toxic emissions about 70% since its introduction in October 2008 at the nation's busiest harbor complex. Parallel state clean-air regulations also go into effect Jan. 1.
Many laud the move toward greener technology in the so-called diesel alley corridor of south L.A. County, where port pollution has been blamed for elevated cancer rates, widespread asthma and other health ailments. Ports nationwide are considering similar bans.
While no one knows for sure, some estimate that the ban will deny more than 5,000 truckers access to their principal source of employment. Many, like Cervantes, are already reeling from the effects of the recession, living paycheck to paycheck.
About 20,000 truckers are registered to work at the port complex, officials say, but regular users amount to about half that number.
Those affected are mostly working-class immigrants from Mexico and Central America who were able to make a living in what was long a largely unregulated, and freely polluting, industry. But clean-air concerns have changed all that.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Can’t they just pick up a load of green shoots and haul them to market?
another liberally inspired success story
All the freight that arrives in KALIFORNIYA ... should ROT in KALIFORNIYA
I drove 18 wheeler for 10 years... always HATED going in to KALIFORNIYA...
This is touted by CARB as an air toxics issue.....thousands dying from diesel emissions.
Well, show me the bodies. Show me the pathology lab reports that clearly identify diesel emissions as cause of death.
It's all bullshit and it has to stop.
This would be like forcing people to turn in their old cars because they were not designed to produce as low a level of pollution as newer cars.
Looks like the Bummer administration is caught between a rock and a hard place. Mexican buddies or greenies? Whom to give a sop to?
One advantage of the ‘Rat party in total power-—now they get the well deserved, full force of the crapola hurled at them. The majority of Americans were employed during the Bush years—(except the last few months of it) due to demoRat housing bubble burst. No fun in Bam world now!
So, how about the ships coming in to the port? Do they have particulate filters on their stacks? Hmm?
It never ceases to amaze me.
CA wonders why industry has left.
CA wonders why they are losing tax base.
CA wonders why they are broke.
CA puts another nutty law into effect.
CA is our future unless we throw the bums out.
F*** em.
2 years ago, the LB union went on strike for salary reasons and who did they blame??
GEORGE W BUSH. ALL their placards had anti-war signs. Now WTF does Bush have to do with their salaries? I couldnt believe they were on Tv with this crap.
Been to Long Beach Ports TWICE... picked up JAPANESE AUTO PARTS the I took to the Chrysler Plant in MEXICO.. and they wonder why they’re GOVERNMENT MOTORS 2!!
CARB will kill CA... and the Sooner the Better... and btw.. will the last Sane person to leave Kaliforniya.. please turn out the LIGHTS.
Trucks are made to travel. GTH out of Californica...
“Some community activists who pushed for a cleanup sympathize with the truckers’ plight. They point to official assurances that large shipping concerns, not drivers, would pay the price for the cleanup
“We need clean air, but not on the backs of the truckers,” said Martha Cota, 46, a long-time Long Beach resident who suffers from asthma, as do her two sons.”
It’s always amusing when Environmentalism and Social Justice collide...and the little guy gets screwed.
I bought a 2006 Honda CRF450X OFF-ROAD racing motorcycle. Off-road. It was Kali CARB compliant. *sigh*
Insanity!
I’m just speechless, it’s so crazy, how did I end up in the phukin Twilight Zone!
Atlas shrugged
Californians have not woke up yet.
When they do, it will be way too late....
How many of these old trucks are driven by Mexican nationals from across the border? I am curious because in the Indianapolis they bought hundreds of old rigs to take back to Mexico. The funny part is they got them cheap because they were too rough to pass dot inspections which made them scrap to us but as the deal was planned coming from Mexico they didn’t have to pass a dot. Are these the trucks that will be idled? Its not the way I would have done it but if so they really need to be scrapped.
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