The Port Authority of New York has agreed to several anti-pollution measures while it continues work on future phases of a program to replace older trucks at the East Coast’s largest port. But environmentalists aren’t content.
In an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the port authority pledged to provide $200,000 to help replace pre-2007 model trucks, and to provide up to $1.5 million to help terminals offset costs of replacing diesel cargo-handling equipment with alternative-fuel equipment. The port authority also agreed to encourage the roll-out of truck appointment or management systems aimed at metering the flow of trucks at terminals, and to work to make these systems uniform among marine terminals in the port.
The measures were criticized as “shockingly inadequate” by the Coalition of Healthy Ports, an organization that has pushed for faster replacement of older trucks.