Court Orders Review of Mexican Truck Traffic
SAN FRANCISCO, California, January 17, 2003 (ENS) – A federal appeals court has ordered the Bush administration to review the environmental impacts of opening U.S. borders to Mexican truck traffic.
Finding that the Bush Administration “acted arbitrarily and capriciously,” the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the administration violated federal environmental laws by taking steps to give Mexico based trucks full access to U.S. highways without reviewing the impact they would have on air quality. The court ordered the administration to complete a full Environmental Impact Statement and Clean Air Act conformity determination.
The court ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed in May 2002 by a coalition of environmental, consumer and labor groups including Public Citizen, the Environmental Law Foundation and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
“Today’s ruling is a victory for the environment and public health. The court has acted decisively to prevent an influx of trucks into the U.S. until we know how they could affect the air we breathe,” said Jonathan Weissglass, a attorney for the petitioners and a partner at Altshuler, Berzon, Nussbaum, Rubin & Demain.
The court decision stated that while the judges agreed with the importance of the United States’ compliance with its treaty obligations with Mexico, “such compliance cannot come at the cost of violating United States law.” The court concluded that the Department of Transportation acted “without regard to well established United States environmental laws.”
The judges noted that a number of studies have demonstrated that diesel exhaust and its components constitute “a major threat to the health of children, contribute to respiratory illnesses such as asthma and bronchitis, and are likely carcinogenic.”
The lawsuit claimed that trucks from Mexico would increase U.S. air pollution because at least 30,000 Mexico based diesel trucks could enter the U.S. in the next year alone, including many older, pre-1994 trucks that are among the worst polluters. A study has suggested that by the year 2010, trucks from Mexico will emit twice as much particulate matter and nitrogen oxides as U.S. trucks.
There is no system in place to systematically inspect the emissions of trucks coming over the border from Mexico. In addition, trucks from Mexico may not be covered by a 1998 settlement between the government and trucking manufacturers that requires U.S. trucks to remove “defeat devices” which enabled them to test clean at inspection sites but run dirty on the open road.
“Trade and environmental protection need not be enemies – but here the Bush Adminsitration simply ran roughshod over U.S. law,” said Al Meyerhoff, a partner with Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach LLP and an attorney for the petitioners. “In doing so, they unnecessarily jeopardized American public health.”
To read the full court opinion, click here.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
Posted by: Paul on January 20, 2003 at 12:01:01