Thread: Ruling on Mexican trucks will bring (...) smog

http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/regstat ... 65676.html

see the link, I only posted first page.

Ruling on Mexican trucks will bring the state a load of smog
California air-quality regulators say trucks from south of the border tend to pollute more. The border will open to them soon under NAFTA guidelines.
By Michael Gardner
Copley News Service

SACRAMENTO -- An anticipated surge in long-haul truck traffic from Mexico will deliver more than loads of produce, electronics and clothing to Southern California.

It will also bring a lot of smog.



California's air-quality regulators say the imminent opening of the state's freeways and ports to older, diesel-fueled Mexican trucks could produce a dramatic increase in toxic pollutants, a new source of smog equal to another 2.2 million cars on the road.

"This would have a serious impact on the region's health and particularly on the health of those community members living adjacent to any heavily traveled routes," warns a just-released state Air Resources Board report.

"Additionally, the supplemental emissions generated by the increased truck traffic could impede California's progress toward attaining the federal air quality standards, which could potentially jeopardize billions of dollars in federal transportation funding," the report says.

As a result, state and Los Angeles officials say they may have to impose more stringent local standards to offset the added pollution from Mexican trucks.

Opening California's borders to more trucks is part of the North American Free Trade Agreement, commonly known as NAFTA, signed by President Clinton a dozen years ago.

A series of legal challenges stalled the opening of California's border to foreign truckers after NAFTA became law. But in 2004 the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the last legal roadblock when it ruled the federal government was not required to prepare complete environmental studies on impacts associated with foreign traffic.

The Bush administration is expected to erase an initial border policy, which had limited most Mexican truckers to a 20-mile zone within California. The air board's report said an announcement repealing the limit is "imminent."

Regulators estimate that as many as 12,000 more Mexican trucks will cross into California daily, spewing another 50 tons of smog. A quarter of those trucks were on the road before 1980, and as many as nine of every 10 were built before 1993.

California entry points are at Otay Mesa, along a major corridor from Tijuana to San Diego, and at Calexico in Imperial County. The total daily number of vehicle crossings at those two sites could increase to as many as 17,500, from the current 3,500.

Currently, 3,000 trucks cross at Otay Mesa, said Robert Reider, who monitors the issue for the San Diego County Pollution Control District. San Ysidro serves mostly passenger vehicles.

As a result, state and Los Angeles officials say they may have to impose more stringent local standards to offset the added pollution from Mexican trucks.

.....



-pa

Something else to consider..........

When the Mexican national driving the truck belonging to a Mexican firm runs into your car, harming or killing you and others in your vehicle....

how are you or your survivors gonna' receive compensation?

You or your lawyer will telephone the foreigners in their own land. Of course, "No habla Englis."

Get an interpreter and the offender just hangs up.

What are you going to do?

Go to the World Court?

Contact a federal bureaucrat?

Face it, those harmed by the rampaging Mexican truckers will have no recourse BUT............

that's OKAY!!!!!!!!!!!

The elite class is making money!!!!!!

All is well.

Everything is as it should be.

Now, go home and let your betters run their affairs for their betterment.

People need to understand some things about how California environmental politics work.

Rule #1: Smog is bad, unless it's ethnic smog, whereby it's transformed into just another contribution to the wonderful tapestry of diversity.

Rule #2: Smog is bad, unless it's caused by a junker car that is exempt from pollution regulations, because otherwise it would be an undue hardship on poor people and immigrants.

Rule #3: Smog is bad, therefore all new cars will be tested every two years at the owner's expense, even though most vehicle makers warrant their products to pass pollution tests for at least five years and produce less than 1% of the amout of smog created by Rules 1 and 2.