ENVIRONMENTALIS TS CHEERED a July 1 federal court ruling that allows the California Air Resources Board to regulate emissions from oceangoing vessels, but the maritime industry insists regulators should place more trust in the private sector, which is actually moving faster than state authorities to reduce pollution.
As if to prove that point, a solar-assisted NYK Line car carrier arrived at the Port of Long Beach that same day. The Auriga Leader’s 328 solar panels will reduce energy use by only 0.8 percent, but NYK sees it as the beginning of an effort that will lead to development of a zero-emission vessel.
Environmentally aggressive states such as California believe government mandates are needed to nudge the private sector into cleaning up its operations, but maritime leaders hope the lesson of the Auriga Leader is not lost on regulators.
“Industry doesn’t seem to get credit for all of the things it does,” said John McLaurin, president of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association.
The shipping industry can boast of many accomplishments in the environmental arena. Vessel operators regularly reduce their speed in port areas to reduce emissions. Vessels use low-sulfur fuel in their main and auxiliary engines. The use of slide-valve technology reduces fuel consumption and cuts emissions.
In Los Angeles-Long Beach, some carriers are operating vessels at berth from shore-side electrical power, and others are experimenting with a bonnet-type mechanism to capture smokestack emissions.
Richard Steinke, executive director of the
Port of Long Beach, said the private sector
developed the solar-assisted Auriga Leader
without any mandate from government regu-
lators. “Industry did this with its own money
and its own research,” he said.
NYK Line, under its Cool Earth project,
plans to cut carbon emissions 10 percent by 2013
and 69 percent by 2030 through the use of solar
power, wind power, fuel cells and improved hull
designs. NYK believes development of a zero-
emission vessel is possible by 2050.
The PMSA was criticized for challenging
the CARB regulation that took effect on July 1,
requiring vessel operators to burn low-sulfur
fuel in their main and auxiliary engines within
24 miles of the California coast. McLaurin said
the PMSA does not question CARB’s goal of
reducing harmful emissions, but rather the
state’s effort to extend its jurisdiction beyond
the federally mandated three-mile limit.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern
District of California sided with CARB and
declined to issue a preliminary injunction. The
24-mile rule is now in effect, and McLaurin
said his members, including most of the lines
that call at California ports, would abide by the
court’s decision.
However, the PMSA also urged support for
the International Maritime Organization’s low-
sulfur fuel standards that will be phased into
the global fleet. Although the IMO lags CARB’s
timetable for implementing the regulations, the
international effort will be more effective in the
long run, McLaurin said.
The IMO allows regional measures such
as the proposed U.S.-Canadian North America
Emission Control Area that will be more com-
prehensive than CARB’s regulations.
“The U.S.-Canadian proposal exceeds the emission standards and requirements that are at issue in the litigation and would achieve more meaningful air quality results,” McLaurin said. JOC
Contact Bill Mongelluzzo at bmongelluzzo@joc.com.
INDUSTRY STATES ITS CASE
ON GREEN INITIATIVES
ELLIOTT TO HEAD STB
PRESIDENT OBAMA is filling out his team to regulate railroads.
Obama plans to nominate Daniel R. Elliott III, the United Transportation Union’s associate general counsel, as chairman of the Surface Transportation Board. That would put
Elliott in charge of the rail regulatory agency at a key juncture. Congress could revamp the STB this year to resolve shipper protests and require the agency to take a tougher stance toward carriers.
If confirmed by the Senate, Elliott would take over from Acting Chairman Francis P. Mulvey, who has been in that role since mid-March.
Elliott’s nomination underscores the clout of the UTU, which represents some 125,000 active and retired train conductors and other rail and transportation workers. Obama earlier installed Joseph Szabo, the union’s top Illinois state lobbyist, as chief of the Federal Railroad Administration, which oversees rail safety issues and a growing pot of federal grants and loans for railroads.
The three-person Surface Transportation Board has been down one member since March, when W. Douglas Buttrey, a Republican appointee, resigned. The president named Democratic appointee Mulvey acting chairman at that time,
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