A long-range plan designed to reduce air pollution around the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that could cost up to $14 billion is now official policy.

Harbor commissioners for Los Angeles and Long Beach voted Thursday to adopt the 2017 Clean Air Action Plan Update. The vote took place during a special meeting conducted at the Crowne Plaza Los Angeles Harbor Hotel, and commissioners voted unanimously to support the new plan, according to announcements from both port organizations.

“These new policies and strategies are some of the most progressive air quality rules in the nation,” Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia said in a statement. “We are serious about fighting climate change, protecting local residents, and promoting economic success at our ports.”

Much of the plan, estimated to cost $7 billion to $14 billion over many years, involves shifting the cargo handling and trucking industries away from fossil fuels and toward near-zero and zero-emissions technologies. The plan also anticipates that cleaner engines will power future container ships.

Harbor officials’ adoption of the plan follows the joint declaration Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Garcia made in June in favor of having zero-emissions cargo handling technology at the twin ports in 2030. The mayors have also announced their intent for zero-emissions trucks to carry freight between the ports and Southern California distribution centers in 2035.

Although that’s a timeline that stretches over the course of nearly two decades, the plan’s authors observed in the document that considerable investments will be required over the coming five to seven years to make sure anyone driving a near-zero or zero emissions vehicle has access to the necessary fuel or electricity.

The plan also requires that from 2020 on, terminal operators’ acquisitions of cargo handling equipment brings zero-emissions machines to the ports, assuming such equipment can be purchased. The new policy also establishes a fee structure intended to promote trucking companies’ switch to cleaner rigs.

A similar mechanism intended to give shipping companies an incentive to bring cleaner vessels to local docks is scheduled to begin in 2025.

The now-official policy further calls upon the leaders of local ports to advocate for stricter environmental regulations, to support technology demonstration programs in Los Angeles and Long Beach, for public financing for clean technology research and for grants for companies doing business at the ports.

Commissioners cast their votes Thursday after conducting a lengthy public comment period during which environmentalists and others contended the new policy does not go far enough to promote zero-emissions equipment. Commissioners also heard from truckers who expressed worry that the costs of switching to cleaner trucks may fall upon individual drivers.

Many truckers own or lease their vehicles, and parallel to the long-running argument over whether drivers should be classified as independent contractors or trucking firms’ employees, the plan has aroused worry that working-class drivers may bear the burdens of adopting cleaner, but more expensive, rigs.

The plan’s authors have acknowledged that zero-emissions technology contemplated for future adoption is not yet commercially available. Business interests have expressed worry over projected costs and whether hoped-for technologies will eventually prove to be reliable.

“As the CAAP is implemented, it will take open, honest and collaborative dialogue by all parties to address the feasibility of zero-emission cargo-handling equipment and to examine the ports ability to compete with other North American trade gateways,” Pacific Merchant Shipping Association president John McLaurin said in a statement.

The ports adopted their inaugural Clean Air Action Plan in 2006. That plan included the Clean Trucks Program, which banned old rigs from the ports in an effort to curb air emissions.

Port officials report a substantial reduction in air pollution since the time before the first Clean Air Action Plan Went into effect. Since 2005, diesel particulate emissions around San Pedro Bay are down 87 percent.

Nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides have, respectively, fallen 56 and 97 percent since 2005, according to the ports.