Collaboration for Cleaner Air and a Focus on Infrastructure Investment at the Nation’s Largest Port Complex

By Mike Jacob, President, Pacific Merchant Shipping Association

Today Southern California reached a milestone worth celebrating:  both the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach have formally entered into a Collaborative Agreement with the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) to establish a clear framework for planning, constructing, and deploying the infrastructure and investments necessary to reach our next generation of clean air goals.

Three governing bodies, three affirmative decisions, sending the clear message that we will continue to work together to further plan for and to accelerate investments in what has already been a two decades-long clean air success story. 

The agreement builds on a proven foundation. For years, the maritime industry has achieved unprecedented levels of success in Southern California at deploying the equipment and infrastructure necessary to meet and exceed some of the most aggressive voluntary goals set for any industrial sector. The marine terminal operators, ocean carriers, railroads, trucking companies, and tug and barge owners have collaborated with the two San Pedro Bay Ports to be national leaders in emissions reduction, even when accounting for cargo volumes surging to meet global demand spikes through a global pandemic and the trade upheavals of the last year.

Our investments in cleaner ships, terminal equipment, trains, trucks, and infrastructure have achieved measurable reductions across every major pollutant category, demonstrating what can be accomplished through coordinated industry-government partnership. We have achieved and exceeded the goals of the Ports’ Clean Air Action Plan, and through 2024 our industry’s efforts have resulted in reductions of diesel particulate matter by -90%, sulfur oxides -98%, and nitrogen oxides by -70%.

The Cooperative Agreement stands on the shoulders of this progress. By recognizing the engineering, workforce, and operational realities involved, the Cooperative Agreement creates a framework for investing in new infrastructure.  The framework is ambitious but accommodating of real world restrictions, enforceable yet flexible enough to adapt if circumstances change, and while aggressive in scope and breadth it still embraces the need for solutions to be technologically and economically feasible.

This outcome did not happen overnight.  It was the product of many months of difficult conversations and thoughtful negotiations between the Air District and Ports’ staff and leadership.  But in the end our shared belief that environmental progress and economic vitality can, and must, advance together was the glue that held the collaborative agreement together.

The Air District demonstrated a genuine willingness to collaborate, listen, problem-solve, and build consensus, and the Ports showed a good faith effort to build a comprehensive plan for infrastructure and further clean air investments.  As a result, we have a non-regulatory alternative approach to shared air quality solutions.

Because the leaders at these public agencies chose partnership and cooperation over ultimatums and punitive rules, we were able to all avoid what seemed like an inevitable litigation showdown over a proposed Port Indirect Source Rule (ISR) that, despite stated intentions, would have inevitably functionally capped economic activity at our nation’s largest ports. The unintended consequences of such a Port ISR would have impacted our competitiveness, shifted cargo away from the US West Coast, increasing greenhouse gas emissions in the process, and threatened thousands of jobs across the Southern California economy.

The Cooperative Agreement represents a far better path - one that preserves the commitment to ambitious clean-air goals while ensuring that the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach remain strong, reliable, and competitive global gateways.

What emerged is not just a policy win but also a shared roadmap for regulatory agencies, ports, and the maritime industry to build out zero-emissions through coordination, innovation, and investment. With this agreement in place, Southern California is better positioned than ever to meet these challenges. We now have a framework that marries environmental ambition with economic practicality, ensuring that our region can continue to lead the world in both clean-air progress and goods movement excellence.

This is what genuine progress looks like. This is what partnership makes possible. And this is how Southern California takes the next step toward an economically feasible clean-air future that will work for decades more to come.