There are few moments on the campaign trail in which Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama aren't trading heated words on the issues. But there's no disagreement between the Democratic frontrunners about what kind of systematic change it will take to reduce emissions and fix the broken port trucking system.

In a high-stakes arena in which message matters, neither politician minced their words or shied away from the perceived controversy over the most critical component of the LA and Long Beach Ports' Clean Trucks Program. Halting deadly port truck pollution requires employee drivers, Obama and Clinton argued in letters to Mayors Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, Bob Foster of Long Beach, and Ron Dellums of Oakland, the Long Beach Press Telegram reported.

Obama and Clinton urged the mayors to work with their respective harbor commissions to ensure that trucking companies take responsibility for clean trucks by legitimately employing the workers who haul goods, instead of forcing individual truck drivers who average $11-12 an hour to pay for a modernized fleet.

If this all sounds like fair, common-sense policy, it's because it is, and the clean trucks proposal is wildly popular in the communities around the Ports. 74 percent of registered voters in the Long Beach region favor the plan.

The presidential hopefuls' support for a strong Clean Trucks Program in the crucial weeks before California's primary on February 5 has shined the national spotlight on what is perhaps the most dramatic diesel-emissions reduction program in history. It has also turned up the pressure on the LA and Long Beach Ports to hold a key vote of their own. Wholesale, not retail change really is the name of the game in '08.