Ditching Dirty Diesel Collaborative releases groundbreaking report
Members of the Bay Area Ditching Dirty Diesel Collaborative gathered at Port View Park in West Oakland on November 14, to release a groundbreaking report titled “Paying with Our Health: The Real Costs of Freight Transport in California.” The report highlights community and worker health and environmental costs of freight transportation in California. With cranes unloading containers from a massive ship and trucks roaring by in the background, members of the collaborative donned dust masks and spoke out about the impacts of deadly diesel exhaust on the lives of community residents. This report is an innovative and powerful culmination of a year’s work by the Ditching Dirty Diesel Collaborative, the Pacific Institute, and the testimony of 14 authors who either live next door to or work in the state’s highly polluting freight transportation industry. “Paying with Our Health” paints a vivid picture of what it’s like to live next door to or work in the rail yards, shipping ports, distribution centers, airports and congested freeways that make up this state’s freight transport (euphemistically called “goods movement”) infrastructure. The central finding of the report is that the cost to clean up much of the pollution generated by freight transport through California is under a third of a penny per dollar of revenue raked in by companies that depend on this infrastructure.
This finding debunks the myth that the companies that rely on freight transport through California can’t afford to clean up the tremendous pollution it creates. The report adds significant strength to campaign efforts by the Ditching Dirty Diesel Collaborative to ensure that the huge companies that are responsible for the pollution generated by freight transportation pay their fair share to clean it up, and that local policy better protects the health of the community residents and workers at greatest risk.
To download copies of the report go to: http://www.pacinst.org/reports/freight_transport/
For more information, contact Swati Prakash at the Pacific Institute: swati@pacinst.org.
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