FREE
Complete up to the minute coverage every day. Read more on www.heysocal.com. What to do for Halloween in LA County
Man set on fire in Santa Monica, police seek suspect
Go to ArcadiaWeekly.com for Arcadia Specific News M O N D AY, O C T O B E R 25- O C T O B E R 31, 2021
V O L U M E 25,
N O. 42
Port of LA: 2021 cargo surge likely to upend clean air progress BY CITY NEWS SERVICE
T
he Port of Los Angeles said Thursday that the cargo surge in 2021 will likely upend some of its progress toward achieving cleaner air at and around the port. “Operational efficiency benefits both business and the environment,” said Port Director of Environmental Management Christopher Cannon. “The heavy volume of inbound cargo has led to disruptions across the supply chain, and those impacts will be reflected in next year’s (Inventory of Air Emissions report).” President Joe Biden announced on Oct. 13 that the port would begin operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week as part of a push from the White House to clear supply chain disruptions threatening the holiday shopping season and slowing the nation’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement came after cargo ships had been anchored offshore from the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach for weeks waiting to enter the facilities. On Wednesday, there were 70 ships waiting to get into one of the ports. The pollutants at the port were slightly reduced in 2020 compared to 2019 during an unprecedented pandemic
year in which cargo volume both plunged and surged, according to the Port’s Inventory of Air Emissions for 2020. Diesel particulate matter decreased 1%, nitrogen oxides decreased 3% and sulfur oxides decreased 1%, according to port officials. The decrease in 2020 was attributed to container trade falling 19% during the first five months of 2020 due to the pandemic. Cargo surged in the third quarter by more than 50% for the remainder of the year, but the total cargo volume for the year was slightly lower than 2019. The year 2020 finished as the fourth-busiest year in the port’s history, with more than 9.2 million 20-foot equivalent units moved in 2020. The reduction in cargo offset in the beginning of the year offset the emissions increase during the second half of the year, the port said. “The tremendous drop in emissions during the first part of 2020 offset the increase at the end of the year,” said Cannon. “The cargo surge has continued well into this year, so we expect to see an increase in emissions for calendar year 2021. The port also attributes the 2020 reduction in pollutants in part to high compliance with mandatory and voluntary pollution control reduction programs, including switching to cleanest-
available low-sulfur fuel, using incentives to attract cleaner, newer ships to the port and plugging most container, refrigerated cargo and cruise ships into shoreside electrical power at berth. The pandemic’s shutdown of cruise operations, which began on March 15, 2020, also reduced emissions, as did a reduction in ferry and excursion boats. The port said that 40% of the trucks in the drayage fleet are either from 2014 or newer, making them cleaner and more efficient than older models. The port aims to eliminate tailpipe emissions from drayage trucks by 2035. Railroad and terminal operators have also upgraded locomotives and cargo handling equipment with newer engines, and 28% of the cargo handling equipment at the port run on electricity or alternative fuels. By 2030, the port aims to eliminate tailpipe emissions from cargo handling equipment. Emissions fluctuate annually at the port, and in 2020, greenhouse gases decreased by 12%. “The technology that reduces particulate matter and nitrogen oxides can sometimes increase greenhouse gases,” Cannon said. “This makes our zero emissions demonstration projects all the more critical because they reduce both criteria pollutants and greenhouse gas levels.”
Port of Los Angeles. | Photo courtesy of NOAA’s National Ocean Service via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Minor league baseball and the propaganda of America’s pastime Path to the pros littered with horror stories, systematic mistreatment BY JORDAN GREEN
T
he number of ballplayers under contract in the minor leagues is tough to precisely nail down. No one farm system is
grown and cultivated the same. In July 2018, The New York Yankees had 340 players signed to their franchise, 50 more than any other Major League Baseball team at the time. A Baseball
America estimate from that same summer pegged the median number of players per organization at 275-280. With that in mind, and excluding non-affiliated leagues, it’s safe to estimate
the total number of players bouncing between the majors and the minors is in the range of 8250-8400. A reasonably sized sample, not exactly insurmountable for the aspiring
athlete. There are more than enough minor league baseball players to fill, say, Dunkin’ Donuts Park, the home of the Hartford Yard Goats. But making it to the
pinnacle, earning a cherished spot on the 25-man roster of a major league
Minor league baseball page 4