The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are a hub of international trade, and also the biggest source of smog-forming emissions in Southern California because of their heavy concentration of diesel-guzzling trucks, ships, trains and cargo-handling equipment.
But leaders of the city-owned ports have for too long treated their pledges to cut air pollution as aspirations rather than imperatives.
Perhaps nowhere is that clearer than in the nearly two-decade-long legal battle over the Port of L.A.’s environmental promises at the 142-acre China Shipping North America terminal near the Vincent Thomas Bridge. In a 2004 settlement of a lawsuit by community and environmental groups over an expansion of the terminal, city officials agreed to a slew of measures to cut pollution from ships, trucks and equipment, among other actions at the terminal. More than a decade later, city officials revealed they had failed to carry out many of the requirements — and The Times reported they had even granted the Chinese government-owned shipping company leasing the terminal secret waivers.
