Long Beach Harbor OKs fees on containers
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES » The Long Beach Harbor Commission yesterday voted in favor of imposing fees on cargo containers moving through the Port of Long Beach as part of a plan aimed at curbing air pollution from trucks.
The panel voted to charge a fee between $35 and $70 on every loaded container that calls on the port beginning in June, to be used to replace older-model trucks with ones that spew fewer harmful emissions. The fee does not apply to containers that are loaded onto rail.
Harbor commissioners in Los Angeles are expected to vote later this week on whether to apply the same measure on containers hauled through the Port of Los Angeles.
The two ports account for 40 percent of all the cargo container traffic coming into the United States.
The move will affect some, but not all, of the shipping between Hawaii and the mainland.
Matson Navigation Co. has two ships that service Honolulu from Long Beach, but also has two serving Hawaii from Oakland and one from Seattle. Horizon Lines Inc. has two ships that go between Los Angeles and Honolulu and two that go Tacoma-Oakland-Honolulu.