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ElecTruckTwo electric battery-powered heavy-duty trucks that will help cut pollution at busy Los Angeles County ports were unveiled recently at PortTechEXPO 2012, a symposium for green transportation technologies.
These large Class 8 trucks are port drayage trucks that haul cargo containers to and from seaports. They transport containers relatively short distances, usually between ports and regional warehouses or intermodal facilities, where containers are transferred between trucks and freight trains.
TransPower says the need for its “ElecTrucks” is most evident at America’s largest seaport, California’s San Pedro Bay Port complex, which includes the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach.
The area surrounding this port complex has been nicknamed the “Diesel Death Zone” by environmentalists, who are alarmed at the elevated cancer rates and incidences of lung disease among area residents.
Responding to the need to reduce emissions, TransPower is leading a Port Electric Truck Initiative, PETI, with the goal of demonstrating the first practical electric port truck technology in actual drayage service by early 2013.
The team’s first generation of...
CHS Inc. plans to build a $1.2 billion fertilizer plant near Jamestown, N.D., in what would be the agricultural cooperative’s biggest single investment ever.
Inver Grove Heights-based CHS picked the state partly because of its abundant supply of natural gas, which is used to produce ammonia. North Dakota hasn’t offered any financial incentives, at least not yet.
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From the Journal of Commerce:
The president of the International Transport Workers’ Federation said his meeting with U.S. dockworker union leaders produced mutual pledges of support for union job security, retraining, jurisdiction and improved working conditions in exchange for automation.
ITF President Paddy Crumlin met last week in Washington with Harold Daggett, president of the International Longshoremen’s Association, and Bob McEllrath, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Daggett briefed the meeting on the ILA’s contract negotiations.
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Beginning Monday, the country’s ports have been at a standstill due to a strike by bar pilots. Early Monday, operations had stopped in all at ports of mainland Portugal and the autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores. The protests are expected to last for five weeks.
Port stevedores are also to walk out in protest Wednesday, then the Friday, and Monday of next week. Port workers are protesting against an agreement signed by the government and several sector associations and unions that they do not support and demand greater safety while their numbers have been reduced.
This past weekend, Portugal underwent a wave of anti-austerity protest marches all over the country. Marching under the slogan “Screw the troika! We want our lives”, an estimated 1 million protestors across the country came out against cuts in salaries, pensions and a recent announcement to put workers’ social security contributions up from 11% to 18%.
Last week, Portugal’s largest trade union federations, CGTP and UGT, were debating calling a general strike and other protest actions against the austerity measures announced by the government two weeks ago.
More in the Portuguese...
Source: Cumberland Times-News
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Source: Reuters
Source: Labor Video Project
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