Cleaning up at the Ports

(Today's Date), 2004

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

As a resident of California and your constituent, I urge you to sign Assembly Bill 2042, authored by Assemblymember Alan Lowenthal, which would limit the increase of air pollution from California’s top polluting ports.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are the largest contributors to the Los Angeles Air Basin’s air pollution. The volume of goods moving through the ports has quadrupled in the last seven years and is projected to quadruple again in the next fifteen years. AB 2042 would establish a baseline for air quality in anticipation of the inevitable growth of the ports.

According to the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), cancer risk estimates at the ports are about 1 per every 700 people exposed, far above the 1-in-a-million risk level considered acceptable by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. According to the District, the ports are the largest single source of air pollution in the four-county jurisdiction of the District. AB 2042 would require the SCAQMD, the Air Resources Board, and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to enter into a Memorandum of Agreement to implement emission control measures related to operations at each of those ports.

Given the anticipated growth at the ports, and the fact that almost all of the ships, trucks and equipment used at the port are fueled by cancer-causing diesel, it is important to do as much as we can to limit the increase in toxic emissions while the ports grow. In your campaign, you stated your support for reduction of California’s air pollution by 50 percent and AB 2042 is a major step toward that goal. Please sign AB 2042 today.

Sincerely,

(Your Name)