California leads the world in progressive environmental policies aimed at lowering carbon emissions. Who is more environmentally friendly than California? But another area where California is a leader is in unemployment; it ranks in the top-10 for highest unemployment rate in the nation (tied for seventh place). To bring it home, the Los Angeles metropolitan area unemployment rate is at 5.1 percent and the national average is 4.2 percent.
It is in this abysmal economic setting that, on Nov. 2, the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports will jointly be voting on the final draft of the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan proposal set by the mayors and ports of both cities to further reduce air emissions. On the surface the plan’s aggressive goal sounds like a good idea: make the Southland a cleaner, more comfortable place in which to live. The problem is that these regulations, in their current proposal, go way too far and will not achieve the desired outcome.
