The U.S. EPA Friday announced tough new diesel pollution standards for the shipping industry (perhaps to distract us from Wednesday's announcement of not-so-tough ozone standards.) The new standards for diesel trains and ships will begin to be phased in in 2015; when in full effect, they'll require a 90 percent reduction in soot emissions and an 80 percent reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions. Says Frank O'Donnell of Clean Air Watch, "This is a rare case of the Bush administration doing something positive on air pollution." That's high praise.
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Wolverine Posted 9:36 am
14 Mar 2008
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shb Posted 10:28 am
14 Mar 2008
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Wolverine Posted 4:51 am
16 Mar 2008
Where did you get the info that large ships will not be affected? This directly contradicts the AP report, which says in relevant part, "The rule will cover cargo ships that travel between U.S. ports, vessels on inland waterways including the Great Lakes, as well as tugboats and passenger ferries ..." The EDF report seems to indicate that cargo ships will not be included, but it's not clear.
On the other hand, there is a huge loophole. "The requirements do not cover foreign vessels using American ports, which fall under international standards." Well, guess what? The only container ship company, which is how the vast majority of goods are shipped, that is American flagged is Matson. (Matson agreed to keep its American flagging in return for a monopoly on shipping to and from Hawaii and the south Pacific.) This is another reason why long-distance international trade must be eliminated, or at least greatly reduced, in order to prevent the environmental and ecological harms it causes.
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Delay And Deny Posted 6:09 am
16 Mar 2008
I'm glad someone is finally coming after those polluters. Here's one of them now:
http://archive.greenpeace.org/marine/mvgp_gen.html
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