WASHINGTON, March 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Retail Federation and other organizations representing importers, exporters, ocean carriers, marine terminal operators and railroads today issued a white paper calling for the State of California to set diesel truck emission standards and a new program to improve transportation infrastructure in the state.
"California lawmakers have been trying to address congestion, air pollution and other concerns through legislative means such as container taxes," NRF Vice President and International Trade Counsel Erik Autor said. "We believe the better approach is for the private sector to address these issues and work with state and local government to resolve them. The companies that benefit from California's ports are willing to pay their fair share, but we believe a cooperative approach would be more cost-efficient and yield better results than a one-sided solution focused on fees and taxes."
A key proposal in the white paper is the establishment of state emissions standards for all diesel trucks operated in California, with early compliance for harbor drayage trucks working at California ports. Marine terminals would collect a mitigation fee on trucks that do not meet the standards by a specified time, and the revenues collected would be managed by a private financial institution to provide low-cost loans or lease-purchase arrangements for owner-operators who want to upgrade their trucks.
"We are proposing that absolutely no taxpayer money be used to replace old trucks as some have proposed," Autor said. "We strongly believe that using general obligation bonds for this purpose is not a good way to upgrade the harbor truck fleet. However, we do believe the private sector -- principally retailers, importers and exporters -- can do their part in helping pay for cleaner harbor trucks through the freight rates they pay. The simplest and most direct way to achieve this goal is for the state to set standards for diesel trucks operating in California. We call on other environmental and taxpayer groups to join us in this approach by urging the Air Resources Board to move forward on this regulatory process expeditiously."
In addition, the white paper calls for establishment of a Southern California Corridor Authority comprised of state and local governments and private organizations to identify user fees, road tolls and other financing options for six major infrastructure projects. The projects include replacement of the Gerald Desmond Bridge, SR-47 Expressway improvements, I- 110/SR-47 Connectors improvements, I-710 improvements, potentially including truck-only lanes, the Southern California International Gateway near-dock rail project (for which funding has already been identified) and future modernization and expansion of the Intermodal Container Transfer Facility near-dock rail facility in Los Angeles. The paper also lays out 10 principles for establishing public-private partnerships to fund these projects.
National Retail Federation
