Palin asks Schwarzenegger to veto bill that would reduce port pollution

One day before being catapulted into the running for GOP vice president, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin wrote a letter to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), urging him to veto a significant pollution-reduction effort. Specifically, she asked the Governator to not sign a bill that would impose container fees on ships entering the ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles, and Oakland. If OK’d, the fees would bring in an estimated $400 million per year, which would go toward installation of cleaner truck and train engines and projects aimed to reduce congestion and idling. Palin said the fee will harm Alaska’s economy by burdening shippers already dealing with high fuel prices, and “may harm California by driving port business away from its ports.” The three ports together handle more than 40 percent of U.S. goods. Says state Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D), who sponsored the bill, “We are losing about 3,400 Californians each year because of pollution. … I don’t think Gov. Palin truly understands the impacts going on here.”