A surge in smog over the long haul

[question everything]

A surge in smog over the long haul

Report: Coming influx of Mexican trucks 'serious'

By Michael Gardner
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

March 15, 2006

SACRAMENTO – An anticipated surge in long-haul truck traffic from Mexico will deliver more than loads of produce, electronics and clothing to 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 of entry to older, diesel-fueled Mexican trucks could dramatically increase toxic pollutants, a new source of smog equal to 2.2 million additional cars on the road.

(snip)

Opening California's borders to more trucks from Mexico is part of the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed by former President Clinton a dozen years ago. A series of legal challenges stalled the opening of California's border to long-distance foreign trucks after NAFTA became law. But in 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the last legal roadblock when it ruled that the federal government was not required to prepare complete environmental studies on impacts associated with foreign traffic.

The Bush administration is expected to erase the existing border-truck 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 daily truck crossings from Mexico will increase from 3,500 to 17,500, 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, according to the air board report.

(snip)

Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060315/news_1n15trucks.html

[goclark]

1. How many ways can we say ~ Bush OUT!

[John Q. Citizen]

2. Make trucks top off with bio-diesel at the boarder. That would

mitigate a lot of the smog.