Post by dockworker on Apr 16, 2009 21:23:48 GMT -5
Court Denies FMC Injunction in Clean-trucks Case
Florida Shipper
R.G. Edmonson
Apr 16, 2009
A federal court has dealt the Federal Maritime Commission a serious blow in the commission’s efforts to assert its regulatory authority in the Los Angeles-Long Beach clean-trucks program.
Judge Richard A. Leon of the U.S. District for the District of Columbia on Thursday denied the FMC’s bid for a preliminary injunction in the case.
Leon ruled that the FMC had not shown that the program to subsidize trucking companies’ conversion to cleaner diesel trucks would result in a reduction of competition in the drayage business, nor would it cause an unreasonable increase in transportation costs.
In the court’s opinion, transportation costs may increase, but because of the added costs of the clean truck program, not a decline in competition, according to the judge’s opinion.
By a 2-1 vote, the FMC took its case to court on Nov. 13, 2008 challenging the economic aspects of the clean truck program. The program assesses a per-container fee to fund licensed motor carriers’ replacement of older diesel trucks with newer cleaner-burning ones.
The FMC asserted that the program would alter competition by excluding independent truckers, and granting concessions only to companies with employee drivers. However, Leon said that since the program began, some 800 companies had signed up.
This was the first time the FMC had sought to use its authority under the Shipping Act of 1984 to seek an injunction to halt anticompetitive activity. The sole dissenter, Commissioner Joseph E. Brennan, said the suit was a “colossal mistake.”
The court’s opinion noted that any potential economic harm had to be weighed against the environmental harm to the southern California region that could come about before the court weighed the merits of the FMC’s case.
The court said that while the FMC’s concern with the portions of the plan that could hurt competition in the marketplace, the ports “counter that these provisions indeed are necessary to the overall success of the Ports' respective clean truck programs.” To halt the process now would harm those carriers already in the program, and “stunt the environmental and public health benefits the region will otherwise achieve.”
The court’s opinion is available online at
ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2008cv1895-56
Florida Shipper
R.G. Edmonson
Apr 16, 2009
A federal court has dealt the Federal Maritime Commission a serious blow in the commission’s efforts to assert its regulatory authority in the Los Angeles-Long Beach clean-trucks program.
Judge Richard A. Leon of the U.S. District for the District of Columbia on Thursday denied the FMC’s bid for a preliminary injunction in the case.
Leon ruled that the FMC had not shown that the program to subsidize trucking companies’ conversion to cleaner diesel trucks would result in a reduction of competition in the drayage business, nor would it cause an unreasonable increase in transportation costs.
In the court’s opinion, transportation costs may increase, but because of the added costs of the clean truck program, not a decline in competition, according to the judge’s opinion.
By a 2-1 vote, the FMC took its case to court on Nov. 13, 2008 challenging the economic aspects of the clean truck program. The program assesses a per-container fee to fund licensed motor carriers’ replacement of older diesel trucks with newer cleaner-burning ones.
The FMC asserted that the program would alter competition by excluding independent truckers, and granting concessions only to companies with employee drivers. However, Leon said that since the program began, some 800 companies had signed up.
This was the first time the FMC had sought to use its authority under the Shipping Act of 1984 to seek an injunction to halt anticompetitive activity. The sole dissenter, Commissioner Joseph E. Brennan, said the suit was a “colossal mistake.”
The court’s opinion noted that any potential economic harm had to be weighed against the environmental harm to the southern California region that could come about before the court weighed the merits of the FMC’s case.
The court said that while the FMC’s concern with the portions of the plan that could hurt competition in the marketplace, the ports “counter that these provisions indeed are necessary to the overall success of the Ports' respective clean truck programs.” To halt the process now would harm those carriers already in the program, and “stunt the environmental and public health benefits the region will otherwise achieve.”
The court’s opinion is available online at
ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2008cv1895-56