OAKLAND, Calif. — The country's two busiest shipping ports are taking steps to also become more environmentally friendly.

The ports in Long Beach and Los Angeles, Calif., have begun implementing a new program to reduce the emissions and air pollution from the ships and trucks that make these two facilities among the world's most-trafficked shipping hubs.

Beginning in Sept. 2008, the two ports will prohibit the entrance of any trucks built before 1989, when pollution controls began coming installed in big rigs. The next phase of the project, which will go into effect in 2012, moves that manufacture date up to bar any trucks made prior to 2007 from operating in the ports.

In addition to working on the trucks that offload products for delivery nationwide, the ports will also implement solutions that affect the ships bringing goods from overseas. The ports will soon require ships to turn off all on-board power systems while at the docks, another major contributor of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

These project are aimed to overcome the last hurdles to the ports' expansion; the city of Long Beach had set aside $2 billion for growth, and, according to a recent New York Times article, the L.A. port had even more planned to invest in expanding operations.

"There's been a clear message from the communities and the City Council saying, 'you guys can't grow until you’ve addressed the air pollution,’" Art Wong, a spokesman for the port of Long Beach, told the Times. "So we can grow, but we grow green."

In related news, home improvement retailer Lowe's announced yesterday that it had joined the Coalition for Responsible Transportation, a coalition of shipping companies and retailers, and that Lowe's would use only low-emissions vehicles at the ports in L.A. and Long Beach.

The CRT was formed in August 2007 by Target Corp. and logistics companies NYK Line and TTSI Trucking to lead the way into clean truck technology at the two ports. In the months since, Target has been joined by fellow retailers Nike, Home Depot and now Lowe's. Two other shipping companies have joined the group as well: Southern Counties Express and California Multimodal LLC, which will be working with Lowe's to implement its green trucking project.