In addition to East Yard Communities For Environmental Justice's success in the No Vernon Power Plant Campaign, EYCEJ had a major victory regarding railroad emissions reductions.  Since EYCEJ's conception in 2001, the organization's primary campaign has been railyard emissions reduction.  EYCEJ is located in Commerce, which is a community five miles east of Los Angeles that is physically defined by the 5 freeway to the north, the 710 to the west and is home to large BNSF and Union Pacific railyards as well as other businesses involved in the goods movement.  Diesel emissions from the railyards, rail equipment, and trucks that pass through the community have caused the residents of Commerce to be 1000 times more likely to get Cancer than anyone else in Los Angeles.  After EYCEJ sued the Air Quality Management District (AQMD) for not exercising their regulatory power over the railyards, AQMD finally acknowledged their power and agreed to hold a public hearing in which one of the two main agendas would be railyard emissions.  The day before the meeting the LA Times released a front page story about EYCEJ's campaign.  This was extremely exciting because it is the best media exposure the organization ever received and proved to be very timely.  The article serves as evidence to AQMD that this is a serious issue that many people are concerned by.  Furthermore, it made it almost impossible for AQMD to ignore the issue because the issue is under media scrutiny and the public are waiting for AQMD's response.  Before the meeting EYCEJ and our coaltion partners from throughout the state held a rally outside of AQMD headquarters.  We then entered the meeting and testified to ask AQMD to instate rules and regulations for emissions reductions at the railyards.  We had hoped that the rule making process would begin immediately and that AQMD would accept our suggestions for rule making, but AQMD agreed to reconvene in 140 days to then begin the rule making process.  EYCEJ still regards this as a victory because at least they agreed to begin a rule making process.