Judge Rules Port of Los Angeles Violated Court Order
Court requires Port to comply with shore side power requirements for cargo ships
LOS ANGELES (May 2, 2025) – Today a Superior Court judge, the Honorable Timothy B. Taylor, found that the Port of Los Angeles, a department of the City of Los Angeles, is once again violating the law at its largest container terminal. The court held that the Port has been violating its 2024 judgment requiring compliance with, and reporting on, air quality and other mitigation at the China Shipping terminal, finding that the Port’s interpretation of the judgment allowed it to “continue its illegal operation” of the terminal.
Litigation over the Port’s massive China Shipping terminal—which sits just a few hundred yards from homes, playgrounds, parks, and schools in San Pedro—began more than two decades ago, when the Port authorized construction and operation of the terminal without preparing an environmental review of the project. In 2019, a coalition of community and environmental groups sued again under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to address toxic air pollution from shipping and cargo-handling activities at the terminal.
In early 2023, the court found that the Port was in “profound violation of CEQA.” The court entered judgment against the Port in May 2024, holding that, after decades of violating state law to benefit China Shipping, its largest shipping customer, the Port must take long-overdue actions to protect the health and well-being of residents and workers from diesel exhaust and other air pollutants. The judgment required the Port to undertake or expand certain measures to protect air quality, such as using shoreside electric power for cargo ships when they are at berth, and to regularly report its progress in implementing those measures to the court and the public.
Today, the court ruled that the Port had been violating its 2024 judgment in the case. The court will order the Port to comply with the judgment, which it clarified with its ruling. In particular, the court concluded that the Port must adhere to the judgment’s requirement to use shoreside power for cargo ships at berth, and may not unilaterally exempt certain ships from that requirement. The court also found that the Port failed to submit accurate reporting as required by the judgment. The court ordered the Port to resubmit a prior status report, to demonstrate whether it had complied with the shoreside power requirement.
“Today the court directed the Port of Los Angeles and China Shipping terminal operator to do what they should have started doing decades ago,” said Joe Lyou, President of the Coalition for Clean Air. “The mandate is clear. Comply with the law and clean up the air that port workers and community members breathe.”
“We are living in a Diesel Death Zone,” said Peter Warren, of San Pedro and Peninsula Homeowners Coalition. “This lawbreaking has contributed to a public-health failure resulting in chronic illness, school and work absences, hospitalizations, emergency room visits and death. We will remain vigilant until the pollution stops.”
“The right to a safe environment is a widely recognized human right,” said Janet Gunter from San Pedro Peninsula Homeowners United. “We, living near the largest port in America, are suffering from deadly consequences stemming from the mammoth shipping industry. Our goal is to motivate the Port to properly engage in the protection of this right. Thus far, the Port has failed to show it will do so. We will continue to fight for it.”
“The court’s opinion makes clear that the Port’s defiance of its orders must come to an end,” said Jackie Prange, a senior attorney at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). “The Port must finally comply with the law and clean up its pollution.”
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NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).
Coalition for Clean Air’s mission is to protect public health, improve air quality, and prevent climate change.
