L.A. Port Meeting Canceled

Port of Los Angeles officials abruptly canceled a meeting Tuesday of a high-profile task force charged with designing a first-in-the-nation plan to rein in air pollution at a seaport.

The decision created a stir, as some community activists said the plan may be falling victim to intense pressure from shippers, railroads and other industry groups.

Port officials said the experts who were drafting the plan requested more time, although two of the experts said they were unaware of such a request. No new date was scheduled, and it was unclear Tuesday whether the task force would present a pollution cleanup plan to Mayor James K. Hahn on schedule by the end of February.

Hahn, who is seeking reelection on March 8, pledged more than three years ago to hold pollution at 2001 levels and promised a plan by the end of 2004. That deadline was later extended.

Some industry representatives, who sharply criticized aspects of the proposal at private meetings last week, said Tuesday that they were pleased that the group would have more time to study their concerns.

“The task force should take the time to do it right,” said Michele Grubbs, a task force member and a vice president of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Assn.

The all-day public meetings Monday and Tuesday were intended to showcase sweeping proposals to cut pollution at the port, which together with the Long Beach port has grown into the region’s largest air polluter.

The plan is expected to include such proposals as increased use of low-sulfur fuel by ships and railroads and a push to replace older trucks with cleaner-burning models.

On Tuesday, port Commissioners Camilla Townsend and Thomas H. Warren e-mailed task force members, stating that the technical experts working on the plan had requested more time. But two experts said the group did not request the cancellation.

“All I can say is that I’m a member of the technical working group, and we did not ask for additional time,” said air pollution expert Ed Avol, professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at USC.

Another expert, Peter Greenwald, the air district’s senior policy advisor, concurred. “We want to see the process move as quickly as possible,” he said.

But Christopher Patton, the project manager for the group and an environmental expert with the city, said he told Warren on Monday “that if I had my druthers, I would like more time.”

Task force member Noel Park, a community activist, said he was dismayed by industry criticisms of the proposals.

“You just know there’s intense lobbying going on,” he said. “I have visions of the lobbyists circling City Hall like the airplanes circling King Kong.”