Port Container Fee

The HIA addressed a proposed California state bill that would assess a fee on each container moving through the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland. The fee would fund air-quality and traffic-congestion mitigations. Various types of projects that could be funded by the revenues were assessed, including grade separation (creating tunnels or bridges so that cars do not have to wait for passing trains); freeway expansion; train improvements (e.g., electrification of trains, retrofitting old diesel train engines and alternative train technologies); and heavy-duty truck retrofitting/replacement. Some of the typical influences on health that were considered included the impact that these projects could have on air quality, noise, stress, time spent in traffic and motor-vehicle collisions.