Clean Ports Act -- Needed but Not Likely to Pass

By John Ballard

Via Change .org

Make the Trucking Industry Clean Up Its Act

The EPA estimates that 87 million Americans live and work near port regions that violate air quality standards. They are exposed to diesel soot, putting them at grave risk for cancer, asthma and heart disease.

Lax regulation allows approximately 5,500 port trucking companies nationwide to shirk tax laws and push the costs of doing business onto their drivers and taxpayers. Workers are behind the wheel of heavy-duty container rigs up to 15 hours a day and average take-home pay is about $10.50 per hour. Health insurance and other benefits are almost non-existent.

It's clear there's an economic and environmental crisis at our ports. Communities need the right regulations so truck drivers and taxpayers don�t have to pay to clean up the industry�s diesel mess.

The good news is we've already seen what good regulation can do to clean up ports. Los Angeles is an example of what is possible. Their EPA award-winning Clean Truck Program has so far parked thousands of dirty diesel rigs and put 6,600 new clean vehicles on the road -- all while creating thousands of green trucking jobs. But industry polluters are trying to dismantle the green-growth model in court.

Yes, they have a petition. I may sign it if I get around to it but at the moment my attitude about working for change is pretty negative. This commentary by Jonathan Zasloff is negative but accurate.

Clean Ports Act � Dead on Arrival (in the Senate)

Why are the Teamsters suddenly so gung-ho about environmental regulation? The issue is two-fold: 1) whether local government such as Los Angeles can prevent non-union trucks from using its port; and 2) whether local governments can institute container fees to pay for cleaner trucks. If local governments had this authority, then many of them would demand unionization and institute the fees.

Which is why there�s no way it passes. The auto and trucking interests will fight this thing, it will pass the House, and get filibustered in the Senate. You know those Republicans and Tea Partiers who love talking about local control and the Tenth Amendment? That only happens when it�s about providing health care to people. When it�s about the trucking industry, suddenly they start slobbering over Alexander Hamilton.

I�m somewhat skeptical that anyone is really principled about pre-emption and state control (although there are a few exceptions). But conservatives make this argument more often: they insist that it�s not about substance, you understand, just about the federal Leviathan. They thus claim to enforce constitutional punctiliousness (unless it�s about repealing the Fourteenth Amendment). They�ll be hoisted on their petard here, but the inability to feel shame is a great weapon in politics, and in the absence of filibuster reform, they�ll get away with it. Then folks will vote against the Democrats because �they didn�t get anything done.� Ah, voters�.

With a hat tip to David Anderson, I'm ready to join this anonymous blogger he heard about in his "basement-in."

Local Blogger Refuses to Leave Basement "Until Country Is Less Stupid"

(Reuters) Pittsburgh, PA - A local anonymous blogger today announced that he was staging a "Basement-In" until the the Country is less stupid.

The Blogger, who writes for a well-known, if sporatically updated, electronic publication announced via email that "the current state of the country is too dumb to be a part of."

"I have my Netflix, I have several cases of wine and beer, I have a Wii... I figure I can last 12-18 months isolated away until our collective IQs break triple digits."

Sources close to the Blogger indicate that the recent kerfluffle over the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" were finally the straw that broke the camel's back.

"We were watching CNN," said his wife who refused to be named, "And then this report came on and he just started ranting. 'How can they be reporting on this,' he shouted, 'How can they... There's the First... I mean...' And then he just trailed off. I think the stupidity finally broke his brain."

No word on whether the Blogger actually intends on carrying through on his threat, although reports indicate that he has ordered 400 pounds of Cheetos, indicating a long seige.

My brain is broken, too.
During the last few weeks I have witnessed first-hand some of the worst qualities of America's health care system and come to the sad conclusion that I will not see meaningful change in my lifetime.
My wife is looking at what may be a year or two of slow recovery from a medical condition triggered by stress, and one of our children is now dead. In both cases I have personally witnessed avoidable lapses in the system that have made my attitude about health care even worse than it already was.
The outlook is not promising even for the next generation but I remain hopeful that sometime before my youngest grandchild approaches the end of her life her grandchildren will not face some of the mindless stupidity prevailing today.

I pass on this Clean Ports business along with that link to Change.org with the same sense of duty that keeps me paying taxes.
I realize the money goes for many purposes I find morally reprehensible, wasteful or both but the alternatives to paying taxes are worse.

Sorry for the grim post ending. I aim to do better in future.