Sometimes we forget that even with all our technology and high-techery and the like, still a huge amount of our consumer goods arrive in the United States through plain old ships. In fact, a whopping 40% of our goods arrive through the ports of Long Beach, Oakland, and Los Angeles. And now, it looks like California legislators are close to imposing a $60 fee on every container coming through these ports, expecting to raise $400 million a year. Some of this money, say the legislators, would go towards fighting pollution. From the Los Angeles Times,

SB 974 would impose on shippers a fee of $60 for every typical-size cargo container leaving or entering the ports. The money would be used across Southern California and in the Bay Area for such projects as installing cleaner-burning truck and train engines and building roadways under or over railroad tracks to avoid long lines of idling vehicles.

Some of the money would also be used to battle traffic congestion on California’s roadways, and anyone who’s been stuck on the 405 for an hour and a half going from Wilshire to Jefferson knows that’s a godsend of sorts. The bill is opposed by most Republican lawmakers, as well as “commodity growers, such as cotton and almond farmers; clothing store chains; electronics manufacturers; and the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii.” The Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce is concerned that as possibly 90% of goods shipped to the state come from Long Beach or Los Angeles, costs will be passed on to the Hawaiian people.

You can takepart at the Coalition for Clean Air  and learn more about the bill and how it would help fight pollution.