The air quality district overseeing Southern California’s ports is pushing forward on a rulemaking package to eventually target emissions in the polluted basin. After heavy stakeholder opposition, the agency has stepped back from enacting a mandate that could result in capping the volume of cargo passing through the maritime gateway.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District, however, still faces pressure to meet strict federal air quality standards, and it must do so without two key regulatory tools, after the Biden administration failed to act on California’s clean air waivers for a diesel truck sales ban and for clean locomotives.
Staff have narrowed their focus to infrastructure needs for zero-emission equipment, with billions of dollars still needed to build charging stations, grid upgrades, hydrogen fueling equipment and facilities for crop-based fuels. The agency is drafting a rule to require the ports to develop a comprehensive infrastructure plan and begin implementing it once adopted.
Gideon Kracov, South Coast AQMDYet shippers are raising alarms that abandoning the decade-long approach of pursuing voluntary agreements risks reviving a cargo cap further down the road for goods like agricultural exports. Several of the district’s board members helped drive that argument further during a hearing last Friday by pledging strong support for a cargo cap and disparaging arguments for an MOU.
“I'm done listening and listening and listening,” said board member Gideon Kracov, who also serves on the California Air Resources Board. “We need some action now on this.”
Kracov shared a list of frustrations with each of the parties involved. He blamed Chris Chavez, deputy policy director of the environmental justice group Coalition for Clean Air, for “poisoning the well.” He argued Chavez convinced the district and CARB to abandon MOU negotiations with the rail industry and pursue a strict emissions rule for railyards, backed up by CARB’s clean locomotive regulation.
“We told you there were legal issues. We told you there were political issues,” Kracov told Chavez. “We needed something Trump-proof. In response, you shamed us, accused us of selling out.”
He pressed for accountability with Chavez and blasted the group for coming back “with the same failed playbook.”
Chavez then shifted the blame to the ports, claiming they sabotaged the last MOU process, and responded that Union Pacific “derailed” an MOU with the district.
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“The opposition is entrenched, and we’re moving the goalposts again and again and again,” said Chavez. “Are we going to give in to the multi-billion-dollar shipping industry?”
Kracov described himself as a longtime labor supporter but chastised the International Longshore and Warehouse Union for “killing” a CARB study assessing automation opportunities at the ports. Several unions have opposed the district’s cargo cap, fearing it would shut down terminals and jeopardize thousands of jobs.
Kracov dismissed as rhetoric concerns shared by a local chamber of commerce that a rule could force shippers to go elsewhere, taking jobs with them at the expense of the local economy.
“We share your fears,” said Kracov. “I just lost my homes in the Altadena firestorm, and so did my in-laws — total loss.”
He took aim at Thomas Jelenić, vice president at the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, labeling him as the James Bond villain Dr. No, after a heated discussion with the trade group earlier in the week. Kracov asserted that Jelenić does not trust district staff and disdains its authority.
Jelenić, echoing the comments from the ports and terminal operators, urged the district to pursue an enforceable agreement for infrastructure investments rather than a regulatory rule.
Heather Tomley, managing director of planning and environmental affairs for the Port of Long Beach, expressed surprise for the staff’s change in approach and for discontinuing technical meetings with the ports.
“Rulemaking will antagonize our partners and have a chilling effect on innovation and willingness to take risks to try new things in the hopes of finding workable solutions,” said Tomley.
Board member Donald Wagner, an Orange County supervisor, sympathized with those concerns, calling the rulemaking process draconian and heavy handed.
District Executive Officer Wayne Nastri shot back that staff have tried to work with the ports on multiple occasions to craft an MOU, “only for it to fall apart.” He asserted the district had agreed with EPA to move forward on a rule, regardless of an agreement.
“It's much faster to use our authority than to try to run down a third attempt of negotiating an MOU,” said Nastri. “There's a saying, ‘Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, we're not going to go through that again.'”
The district plans to release preliminary language for a draft infrastructure rule later this month and plans to hold a vote on the regulation in the fall.
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