"Port of Los Angeles Continues Financial Incentives For Non-Diesel Trucks" Green Car Advisor

Port of Los Angeles Continues Financial Incentives For Non-Diesel Trucks

The Los Angeles Harbor Commission has approved up to $44.2 million in funding that will be used to help increase the number of alternative fuel trucks operating at the Port of Los Angeles. The funding is part of the port's Clean Truck Incentive Program, which last year helped owners and operators bring 2,200 cleaner vehicles into service at the port.

The 2009 CTIP goal is to add 1,000 additional trucks that are powered by CNG, LNG or lithium-ion battery packs. The port hopes to bring 100 electric-powered trucks into service this year.

In 2012, the port will ban 2003 model year and older trucks from its terminals. The goal is to cut port-related pollution caused by diesel engines by more than 80 percent.

Truck operators can qualify for up to $80,000 in incentives for each LNG or CNG truck purchased. Port terminal operators and concessionaires also can qualify for up to 80 percent of the cost of each electric vehicle purchased for work at the port.

A qualifying LNG truck costs between $160,000 and $190,000. The electric trucks that qualify for incentives cost about $230,000, according to the port, which is now testing two all-electric vehicles at its terminals.

The port has ordered 25 electric trucks from Balqon, Corp., which in March opened its Harbor City, Calif. manufacturing plant. The trucks that can travel for up to 60 miles without a charge can move 60,000-pound cargo containers at a top speed of 40 miles per hour.

The total cost of the incentives program will be about $100 million, so the port is applying for grants from the U.S. Dept. of Energy and the California Air Resources Board. The port program encourages truck owners and operators to replace aging vehicles with trucks that are defined as "clean." That means vehicles must meet 2007 EPA standards.

The Southern California Air Quality Management District estimates that the clean truck program could create an economic benefit of more than $4.7 billion by medical care, lost work time and premature deaths caused by diesel emissions.

Port officials say that the clean truck initiative makes economic as well as environmental sense. On a kilowatt hour of energy cost basis, the electric trucks cost 20 cents a mile to operate. On a per-mile cost basis, a common diesel truck costs nine times as much to use.

Electric trucks would be particularly effective in cutting pollution at the Los Angeles port and the adjacent Port of Long Beach. On an annual basis, trucks make more than two million short-haul trips between the ports and nearby rail and warehouse facilities. Though short, the trips generate some of Southern California's worst air pollution.

Greg Johnson, Contributor