Federal Representatives Introduce Legislation to Cut Ship Emissions

On May 24, 2007, U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein along with U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis introduced landmark legislation that would require the federal government to adopt tougher pollution controls for ocean-going ships.

The new legislation would require EPA to:
• Sharply reduce the sulfur content of fuel used by domestic and foreign ocean-going ships calling at U.S. ports and marine terminals, from an average 27,000 parts per million (ppm) to a maximum of 1,000 ppm, beginning Dec. 31, 2010. Ships calling on West Coast ports would have to use the low-sulfur fuel within 200 miles of the West Coast; and
• Set standards effective Jan. 1, 2012 requiring the maximum degree of emission reductions achievable in new and existing engines for all domestic and foreign ocean-going ships calling on U.S. ports.

In spite of a 1990 federal Clean Air Act mandate to adopt “maximum feasible controls” for ships and other off-road pollution sources, EPA to date has not adopted any significant emission control measures for ocean-going ships. In April, EPA announced that it would delay until December 2009 the adoption of new regulations for such ships. Ships calling on the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are responsible for more than 30 tons per day of sulfur oxide emissions – roughly half of the total emitted by all sources in the region. Sulfur oxide emissions contribute to the formation of PM2.5 pollution. Southern California cannot achieve the federal health-based standard for PM2.5 by a federally mandated 2015 deadline unless sulfur emissions from ships are greatly reduced.

Ships also are a major source of smog and particulate forming nitrogen oxides, as well as diesel particulate matter, a toxic air contaminant. Due to the lack of current regulations, ships are virtually the only source category for which emissions are projected to increase in the future. If rules are not adopted, nitrogen oxide emissions from ships in the region are projected to grow from about 48 tons per day in 2005 to about 90 tons per day in 2020.

For more information contact Peter Greenwald at (909) 396-2111