Day of Advocacy to garner Mayor Bass's support for upcoming Ports and Rail Indirect Source Rules at AQMD
Start: Friday, April 26, 2024• 8:30 AM
End: Friday, April 26, 2024•11:30 AM
Join us! Let Mayor Bass know you support a just transition to 100% zero-emission shipping.
WHO: T.H.E. Impact Project and allies
West Long Beach Neighborhood Association
WHAT: Rally and die-in on the steps of the Spring Street side of Los Angeles City Hall, followed by public comment and solidarity attendance at the Los Angeles City Council meeting calling on Mayor Karen Bass to support the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s Ports and Rail Indirect Source Rules.
WHERE:
Rally and Die-In on the Spring Street side of Los Angeles City Hall: 200 N Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Public Comment at LA City Council: John Ferraro Council Chamber: Room 340, City Hall, 200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, 90012
WHEN:
Friday, April 26, 2024
We’ll meet at 8:30 a.m. on the Spring Street side of City Hall in front of the steps (200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, 90012) for talking points and shirt distribution, before rallying together at 9:00 a.m.
From City Hall, we will enter the LA City Council meeting together at 9:45 a.m., located in the John Ferraro Council Chamber Room 340.
The City Council meeting begins at 10:00 a.m., and we will be out no later than 11:30 a.m.
HOW: Talking points and shirts will be provided.
From the ships leaving from our backyards or coming from overseas, to the trucks and trains driving daily through our communities, the burning of fossil fuels is present at every step in the movement of goods — and our Black and Brown, working-class frontline communities are left to deal with the negative impacts.
For decades, environmental justice communities in Los Angeles and Long Beach have been bearing the brunt of the harmful emissions emitted by the port and freight operations of the goods movement. Diesel-powered semi-trailers and trains, which load up at the Ports of LA and LB with the goods brought in by dirty ships, unload their goods at warehouses and freight hubs that are too often located in working-class, BIPOC communities. This has resulted in damages to the environment, increased rates of health and respiratory diseases and up to 8 years shorter life expectancy in Los Angeles County port-adjacent communities.
In her campaign for Mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass stated she would address decades of environmental injustice that have been felt by port-adjacent communities by transitioning the city away from fossil fuels. Mayor Karen Bass has committed to cleaning up the Port and achieving 100% zero emissions for all port operations by 2030. One way she’s committed to do this is by partnering with all levels of government — like the South Coast Air Quality Management District — to develop strong emissions regulations to reduce the negative health and environmental impacts of the freight sector. With less than six years away from her 100% ZE port goals, our frontline port-adjacent communities are calling on Mayor Bass to stick to her promises and work with SCAQMD to implement strong Ports and Rail Indirect Source Rules that will protect port-adjacent communities.
Strong Indirect Source Rules for Ports and Rail are needed to rectify historical environmental injustice in the LA County region. The federal Clean Air Act defines an indirect source as “a facility, building, structure, installation, real property, road, or highway which attracts or may attract, mobile sources of pollution,” like magnet-sources for fossil-fuel emission sources. The Ports and Rail ISRs would require these stationary sources that attract sources of mobile pollution to implement regulations that will reduce on-site emissions — regardless of the pollution source — and push the industry into an accelerated zero-emission pathway.
Our LA and LB frontline communities are home to the largest seaport in the Western Hemisphere, the San Pedro Bay Port Complex, which is also the largest source of smog and particulate-forming pollution statewide. About 30% of the entire nation’s imports and exports is handled here, which has adversely contributed to some of the nation’s most dangerous air quality — and a major reason why Los Angeles County has been in nonattainment with federal Clean Air Act Standards for over two decades. With the EPA’s recent decision to reject SCAQMD’s plan to obtain Clean Air Act status, it’s more important now than ever to implement the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s Ports and Rail Indirect Source Rules in order to reduce emissions associated with the movement of goods, and set us up for a climate resilient future that protects our communities and our planet.
Our communities can’t continue to rely on voluntary measures — nor should we be forced to wait for clean air. Join The Trade, Health & Environment (T.H.E.) Impact Project — a community-academic coalition of environmental justice advocates, community-based groups and NGOs focusing on reducing the local impacts of the goods movement in Southern California — on Friday, April 26th at 8:30 a.m. PT in front of Los Angeles City Hall for a rally and die-in. Following that, we will make public comments at the Los Angeles City Council meeting inside, and let Mayor Karen Bass know that the city of LA must support a strong Ports and Rail ISR.
Mayor Bass has the power to help protect our vulnerable environmental justice communities by urging SCAQMD to implement policy that will drastically improve the health of port adjacent communities, wildlife and the environment.
This event is FREE and open to the public. Climate change is a global problem — but the impacts are often felt most acutely in the backyards of frontline and Black and Brown communities. We’ve seen profit has been put over people whenever regulation is lacking. Our communities need SCAQMD to implement the Rail and Port ISRs to mandate that all freight operations transition to zero-emission technologies and infrastructure. Join us, and let your voice be heard!
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