| Jan. 10, 2008 Southland
air quality officials today petitioned the federal government to take
immediate action to protect public health from greenhouse gas pollution by
adopting tough new standards for all ocean-going ships calling on U.S.
ports.
“Ocean-going ships emit 3 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases, which
is more than that emitted by all but six individual countries,” said William
A. Burke, Ed.D., chairman of the South Coast Air Quality Management
District. “Global warming also contributes to ozone formation, making our
job of fighting smog even more difficult. We are taking this action because
the federal government must act to protect our global and local environment
from harmful ship emissions.”
In a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator
Stephen Johnson, AQMD today formally petitioned the agency to take immediate
steps to protect public health by adopting tough new standards to reduce
global warming emissions from all ocean-going ships calling on U.S. ports.
Global warming gases include carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen oxides.
(A petition to EPA is a prerequisite to any future lawsuit seeking
regulation of greenhouse gases.)
Today’s action follows a lawsuit filed by AQMD in 2007 aimed at requiring
EPA to regulate smog-forming emissions such as nitrogen oxides and sulfur
oxides from ships.
Although the 1990 federal Clean Air Act mandates EPA to adopt “maximum
feasible controls” for ships and other off-road pollution sources and EPA
declared ships to be a significant contributor to air pollution in 1994, the
agency to date has not adopted any significant emission control measures for
ocean-going ships -- even though feasible controls are available now. In
fact, EPA announced in May 2007 that it would delay until December 2009 the
adoption of new regulations for such ships.
Ships are a major source of smog- and particulate-forming nitrogen
oxides, as well as diesel particulate matter, and are major contributors to
global warming. Diesel particulate is also a toxic air contaminant. In
AQMD’s Multiple Air Toxics Exposure Study (MATES III) released this month,
diesel particulate is identified as causing more than 80 percent of the
total quantifiable cancer risk from air pollution in Southern California.
Due to the lack of current regulations, ships are virtually the only
source category in Southern California in which emissions are projected to
increase in the future. If rules are not adopted, state and local efforts
to reduce smog-forming and greenhouse gas emissions will be significantly
hampered.
AQMD is the air pollution control agency for Orange County and major
portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
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