LOS ANGELES—Tomorrow will be another day of legal reckoning in the continuing saga built upon the Ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach “clean trucks” plan.  The American Trucking Associations has filed an emergency motion with an appeals court seeking an immediate injunction against the plan, and anticipate a ruling by Wednesday afternoon.

“In the filing, we specifically assert that the port’s actions violate the federal statutory provision which prohibits states or their political subdivisions from enacting or enforcing a legal requirement that is “related to a price, route, or service of any motor carrier,’” stated ATA spokesmen.

Curtis Whalen,
executive director, Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference – an ATA affiliate, said that his constituents are “adamantly not” against environmental reform.

“The filing also makes clear that the litigation is not aimed at and should not interfere with the ports’ truck retirement-clean air efforts nor the funding program that is being developed to pay for the newer-cleaner trucks,’ he said.

In an interview with LM, Whalen also noted that the ports are trying to leverage “security concerns” to win their case. While the ATA has endorsed the “Transport Worker Identity Card” (TWIC), the enforcement of such a program is not linked to having concessionaire drivers.

“And everyone in the shipping community knows if a weapon of mass destruction is being sent to a port, it will come by sea…not by truck,” said Whalen. “The terminal operators themselves say that they are not ready to implement such a program by October 1 anyway.”

Late last week, the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC)  also took action to delay the planned Oct. 1 start of the ports’ trucking re-regulation plan.

In a 2-1 vote, the commission decided to request additional information regarding a ports-filed amendment to an antitrust waiver that detailed how the ports would implement the truck plan.  As originally drafted, the agreement filed with the FMC in August 2006 would permit the two ports to discuss planning and implementation of their omnibus Clean Air Action Plan, but the filing then contained no details of the truck plan that has since been approved by LA/Long Beach.