A Model Worth Celebrating: How the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach Got Clean Air Policy Right

By Mike Jacob, President, Pacific Merchant Shipping Association

Earlier this month, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, Port of Long Beach, and Port of Los Angeles each approved an Addendum to the Cooperative Agreement entered into between the Air District and the two Ports at the end of 2025. The adoption of this Addendum is substantive in its own right, it is worth recognizing how it came to be.  While some may just see this as the latest agreement, the Addendum enacts measures which were only possible because they were built on top of a foundation erected over the last two decades.  

This successful history of progress and process matter as much as the current approvals. A year ago, San Pedro Bay faced the prospect of a mandatory Indirect Source Rule by the South Coast AQMD that would have imposed rigid, one-size-fits-all mandates on marine terminal operations. Instead, the Air District chose a different path: a voluntary, enforceable partnership with the Ports, built on collaboration rather than command-and-control regulation.  

While some may have doubted that this cooperative approach could deliver real results, it is no surprise to those of us who have been working with the Ports on their underlying Clean Air Action Plan, or “CAAP,” framework over the last two decades.  

The Ports’ first adoption of the landmark CAAP was in 2006.  It set the most ambitious goals in the country for the Port to meet benchmark reductions in diesel PM, SOx, and NOx emissions from all sources.  Efforts to meet these reductions occurred immediately, including the launch of the Clean Truck Program in 2008.  The first major CAAP update occurred in 2010 and then a comprehensive update of CAAP targets occurred in 2017.  

The results of the CAAP measures already on the books make clear why this model deserves confidence. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have cut diesel particulate matter by more than 90 percent since 2005, alongside dramatic reductions in nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides. Under the CAAP, the Ports have become the cleanest seaports in the Western Hemisphere, all while remaining the busiest port complex in the Western Hemisphere. That is not a coincidence. It reflects a sustained willingness by the ports and their industry partners to find voluntary paths to solve hard problems together, rather than simply waiting for regulatory requirements and unilateral mandates.  And when we have had those, the CAAP framework has organized the industry’s approach to maintaining our baseline competitiveness. 

This month's votes ratifying the Addendum are now the latest evidence of the success of the CAAP and its process.  The underlying CAAP has already produced amazing results and committed both Ports to developing comprehensive zero-emission infrastructure plans across every major source category: cargo handling equipment, commercial harbor craft, drayage trucks, short-haul and class one rail locomotives, and, of course, oceangoing vessels.  

The new measures adopted in the Cooperative Agreement Addendum, called “CAAP Plus,” will put additional investments and deadlines behind the Ports’ existing commitments: $40 million in new funding for regional charging and fueling infrastructure outside the port gates, an enhanced Clean Ship Incentive Program to reward the cleanest vessels calling at San Pedro Bay ports, and a new trip-based incentive to accelerate the deployment of zero-emission drayage trucks. 

None of this happens in a vacuum, and none of it happens without genuine give-and-take. PMSA and our members raised hard questions and challenged the feasibility of previous versions of the CAAP, and even throughout this Addendum process.  With the SCAQMD and the Ports we voiced our concerns about cost allocation, administrative overhead, the Tidelands Trust obligations that constrain how Port revenues can be spent, and about the pace at which utilities need to deliver the electrical capacity this transition depends on. Not every one of those concerns were resolved exactly as we would have drawn it up, but we are happy with the deliberation and that each of these issues were directly considered and addressed. This is what collaboration, direct integration of public comments, and a negotiated agreement look like. What matters is that the parties stayed at the table, worked through the hard parts in public view, and landed on a package that the Air District, both Ports, and ultimately a broad swath of the Southern California supply chain and maritime industry could all support. 

Credit for the Cooperative Agreement belongs in many places: to the Air District's Governing Board, including Chair Vanessa Delgado, and Staff under Executive Officer Wayne Nastri for choosing partnership over the blunt regulatory instrument of the threatened ISR; to City of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and City of Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson for the leadership that kept this negotiation moving; and to the Ports’ executive leadership, Gene Seroka in Los Angeles and Mario Cordero and Noel Hacegaba in Long Beach, and the Ports’ environmental staffs for translating goals and concepts into workable commitments. We would also be remiss if we did not acknowledge the contributions of the members of PMSA, our dedicated supply chain partners, and the many hours that business and labor advocates spent at the table to ensure that the parties stayed motivated. But, most of all, credit belongs to the past two decades of faith in the idea that ambitious environmental progress and continued economic competitiveness do not need to be competing goals, but can be complementary and reinforce one another when the people responsible for delivering them are willing to work through the details together. 

The work is far from finished. Infrastructure must get built, incentives have to reach equipment purchasers, and utilities have to deliver the power capacity this transition ultimately depends on. But the Addendum's approval shows that the collaborative model is primed to continue to keep delivering results. Two decades ago, the maritime community in San Pedro Bay set out to prove that cleaner air and a thriving port complex could be built together. This month we celebrated that vision by continuing to affirm exactly that.