The Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles today introduced four clean-burning compressed natural gas (CNG) trucks to be used in a twelve-month long demonstration, furthering the Ports’ efforts to improve local air quality. Built by Autocar and running Cummins Westport ISL G engines, the CNG trucks produce levels of nitrogen-oxide (NOx) that are 80% lower than even the cleanest diesel trucks.
Certified to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) most stringent emission standards, the trucks will be used to move containers from the Ports to nearby freight yards. CNG trucks are best used for medium-distance transportation, which accounts for about two-thirds of goods imported into the two Ports. David Freeman, L.A. Harbor Board Commissioner, praised the new trucks’ positives and also offered ideas for newer technologies.
“Getting rid of imported oil is a huge domestic advantage of using natural gas, and I think its time the ports realize it,” Freeman said. “Perhaps in the future we’ll develop a MAGLEV system, or something long-term.”
Mayor Foster pointed out that the use of CNG trucks will improve goods movement across the board, from better air quality to lower transportation costs.
“Today is really about improving a host of things,” Foster said. “We have to make sure that we not only clean these ports, but change the way we think about our economy.”
The twelve-month demonstration will costs the ports, the Gas Company and the Air Quality Management Board about $1.7 million. Foster addressed critics who point to the high cost of the demonstration, explaining that the trucks pay for themselves in ways that older models did not.
In the past, he said, a truck driver would have looked to save money by purchasing an older, heavily polluting diesel truck. But the costs of worsened air quality were passed onto taxpayers. Though the CNG trucks are more expensive that polluting trucks, the cost of improved air quality is included in the price.
While the study will include four of the CNG trucks, Gas Company representative Denise King says that they are also available for drivers to purchase.
“The purpose of the demonstration is to show the environmental and economic benefits, but you can also purchase them today,” King said. “These are the first ones commercially available today.”
Mayor Foster speaks, with Councilmember Tonia Reyes Uranga and Gas Company representative Dennis Lord behind him.
Councilmember Tonia Reyes Uranga, an Air Quality Management Boardmember and chair of the I-710 Oversight Committee, speaks to the crowd with Port cranes in the background.
(From L-R) James Boyd from the California Energy Commission, James Hankla from the Long Beach Harbor Commission, and David Freeman from the Los Angeles Harbor Commission.
One of the CNG trucks that will be used in the demonstration and is currently available for purchase.
Hal Snyder, VP of The Gas Company, and Mayor Bob Foster administer the “white handkerchief test” to the CNG truck’s smokestack.
Snyder displays the clean white handkerchief.
By Ryan ZumMallen, Managing Editor
Disclosure: The Port of Long Beach is an advertiser of the staging-live.lbpost.com.