LA residents call for independent body to oversee the port
News that China Shipping has managed to duck under environmental laws at the Port of Los Angeles has made locals call for an independent body to oversee the port.
It has emerged that China Shipping was allowed to shirk 11 of 52 emissions-related measures when it was granted rights to build a terminal at the port seven years ago.
The Los Angeles Times has reported that Geraldine Knatz, executive director of the port back in 2009, assured China Shipping that it would face no consequences for not using shore power (AMP).
“The Port will not hold China Shipping responsible for any outcome as a result of not meeting the 70 percent AMP requirement,” Knatz wrote in an April 2009 letter to the company.
Now local residents are calling for a citizen oversight panel, which was dismantled by Los Angeles harbour commissioners two years ago, to be brought back.