Southern California air regulators approved an agreement with the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Friday that requires the region’s largest pollution sources to develop zero-emission infrastructure plans.
What happened: South Coast Air Quality Management District board members voted to green-light a contract hammered out by the agency, the nation’s busiest port complexes and the mayors of both cities.
The move comes after eight years of negotiations between regulators and port leadership over reducing emissions. The talks have been marred along the way by disputes over whether new rules would make the facilities less competitive and accusations that port officials had not negotiated in good faith.
Why it matters: Speeding up the transition away from diesel-powered ships, trucks and port equipment has long been a top goal for air regulators in Southern California, which consistently ranks among the most-polluted regions in the country and is not in compliance with federal standards for smog-forming nitrogen oxides. The region runs the risk that the Trump administration could withhold federal highway funding over the poor air quality.
