Date: For Immediate Release
Who: Coalition For A Safe Environment +
Contact: Jesse N. Marquez 310-704-1265
Where: Long Beach Convention Center
300 E. Ocean Blvd.
Long Beach, CA 90802
Time: Monday Jan. 30 12:00pm – 2:00pm
Tuesday Jan. 31 12:00pm – 2:00pm
Port Communities to Protest Faster Freight Cleaner Air Conference
The Coalition For A Safe Environment will lead a peaceful protest against the Faster Freight Cleaner Air Conference to be held at the Long Beach Convention Center. “We are protesting because faster freight does not equal or guarantee clean air, it means more freight and more air pollution,” said Jesse N. Marquez, Executive Director of the Coalition For A Safe Environment.
“Ports and the Goods Movement Industry are deceiving the public by inferring that they are using the best available technologies to prevent air pollution when in fact everything that they are currently doing and proposing to do in the next 5-10 years will only reduce air pollution less than 5%,” stated Jesse N. Marquez. Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach container shipments are growing at a rate of over 10% a year which will result in more air pollution and more public respiratory health problems.
There is no Port in the State of California that is using the best available non-polluting container movement transportation technology and none are proposed for the future. Only one terminal at the Port of Los Angeles currently exists which allows ships to plug in electrically and that only happened because the Port of Los Angeles lost a law suit to San Pedro and Wilmington homeowners and residents.
In the recently released October 2005 Diesel Particulate Matter Exposure Assessment Study for the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the California Air Resources Board disclosed that Ports and the Goods Movement Industry cause over 700 premature deaths each year. Sacramento calls Port Communities the “Environmental Sacrificial Lambs” and local San Pedro medical doctor Dr. John G. Miller calls it the “Diesel Death Zone.” The Mayors of Long Beach and Los Angeles are speakers at the conference.
Ports, shipping companies, railroads and retailers are not good neighbors they represent over 25% of all the air pollution in Southern California which also means they are responsible for 25% of the public health problems. Currently the Ports, Shipping Companies, Railroad Companies, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Costco, Target, Home Depot do not pay one dime for public health care. In fact, none of the Governors proposed bonds pay for any public health care. The $ 1 billion for environmental mitigation proposed in the bonds will have little effect when recent studies show that the cost to mitigate the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach growth in the next 20 years is $ 1 billion a year. We need the Polluter to pay for the environmental and public health problems they cause. There needs to be a cost-benefit and mitigation analysis for each proposed project. Currently the Governor and the Goods Movement business industry are trying to by-pass and create a short cut system for expansion, which will only harm the public and continue to destroy our delicate environment. We want California’s environmental laws fully enforced.