Later today you will receive an update from The Northwest Seaport Alliance with operational guidance related to the Clean Truck Program. Before the team gets into those details, we wanted to thank our industry partners who stepped away from businesses and families to share their voices and personal situations with our commissioners. Your engagement in the past few weeks, and truly over the last 10 years, improves our policy decisions and leads to greater benefit for our economy and community health.

For 10 years our ports and the maritime industry have proven that we can reduce diesel particulates and greenhouse gases while maintaining our commitment to maritime industrial jobs. By adopting cleaner fuels and equipment for ocean-going vessels, trucks and equipment, ports and the maritime industry have proven our commitment to doing what’s best for the communities that we serve.

Those commitments are why the NWSA commissioners unanimously agreed to an extension of the original clean truck deadline. We did not take that decision lightly. We based our decision on extensive community feedback and our public service responsibility to carefully manage economic hardship, while also improving air quality and maintaining port efficiency.

We make a commitment to you that we will spend the next few weeks aggressively pursuing state authority to establish a loan loss program that would provide fair and reasonable access to credit for those who need it the most. Managing Members already authorized $1 million to partner with a not-for-profit lender that will create a $5 million to $6 million loan fund, pending approval of the Washington State Legislature.

We also make a commitment to you that we will maintain this engagement as we work together toward achieving our clean air goals as well as our goals to achieve greater economic opportunity and operational efficiency across our facilities. We ask that you make a commitment to us that non-compliant trucks register with the NWSA by April 1, 2018 to continue serving the gateway. More details on that registration are on our website and will be coming from NWSA staff.

We appreciate your investment of time and equipment. Thank you for the partnership.

Co-Chairs,

Courtney Gregoire
Port of Seattle

Don Meyer 
Port of Tacoma

 

Find more information at www.nwseaportalliance.com/trucks.