The Oakland Board of Port Commissioners took a bold step to address community and environmental concerns about impacts on air quality from its maritime operations last month when its seven members voted unanimously to adopt and implement a “Maritime Air Quality Policy Statement” and “Early Actions” to reduce air pollutant emissions and related health risks.
By Patrick Burnson
Published: June, 2009
The policy provides funding mechanisms, including container fees, to generate $520 million over several years for maritime air pollution reduction initiatives and infrastructure improvements. Setting a fee structure will allow the port to qualify for matching state funds for these significant projects. The specific amount of any container fees will be determined after further staff work and analysis is completed on the best approach and the economic and business impacts of such fees. The board also directed staff to convene a public forum in late spring on a proposed requirement that truckers entering the Port be employees of trucking companies, and prepare a report on the issue.
Jack Broadbent, CEO of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, spoke at the meeting in favor of the policy statement, and the California Air Resources Board sent a letter of support. Port Board President Anthony Batarse stated, “This maritime air quality policy statement will lay the groundwork to reduce port pollution and support a healthy community. Air pollution comes from many sources in the Bay Area and we are committed to doing our part to reduce diesel pollution from Port-related activities.” The funding mechanisms will help truckers retrofit or replace older polluting trucks at the seaport. It will also fund ways of reducing ship idling emissions while the vessels are docked at the port.
Even if the Port of Oakland’s cargo business grows, the port will dramatically cut air pollution. The risk reduction calculations will be determined using the Port’s 2005 seaport emissions inventory baseline.
APL Not Entirely Abandoning Oakland
When APL moves its regional headquarters to Arizona later this year, the company will not be completely abandoning Oakland, said spokesmen. NOL Group, parent company of APL, has identified an office building in Phoenix as the new home for its Americas division, but APL will continue to operate a major terminal at the Port of Oakland, and it maintains that the region is vital to its ongoing international strategy.
But it will be Phoenix, not Oakland, that will benefit from new job creation. And it will be from there that APL will coordinate the company’s shipping, terminals and logistics activities throughout the Americas. That includes everything from marine operations to intermodal transport of containers by rail and truck.
Threatened Port Work Stoppage Fails to Materialize
As Bay Area ports grapple with fewer inbound vessel calls and declining freight throughput, labor and management may be forced to do something new: cooperate. A threatened May Day demonstration and work stoppage planned by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 failed to materialize in the Bay Area last month, as dockworkers were told that a violation of their existing contract would result in five days of lost pay. James McKenna, president and CEO of the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), played hardball with the union for the first time since the new six-year contract was signed last summer, but shippers here suspect that it won’t be the last time he pleads with workers to play on the same team.
“How does this contract provide stability for West Coast Ports in an environment where reduced volumes and increased competition from Canada and Mexico ports is a reality?” asked Jean Banker, manager, finance and administrative services for the maritime division at the Port of Oakland. “How will the West Coast ports increase and maximize efficiency?”
Banker, who also serves on the Pacific Transportation Association’s (PTA) board of directors, was hoping to get some answers to those questions when McKenna was scheduled to be the featured speaker at the PTA’s Ports & Terminals luncheon in Oakland’s Jack London Square. Unfortunately, McKenna failed to show, delegating the duty to a subordinate who was not forthcoming with sensitive information, said PTA sources.
