Permission Slipup

News & Analysis
In the News Gristmill Blog Muckraker Features

Columns
Ask Umbra Victual Reality Weekly Recipes The Bottom Line From A to Green The Grist List

Support nonprofit, independent environmental journalism.
Donate to Grist.

ADVERTISING POLICY

[Advanced]

Read more about: air pollution | California | litigation | news | all of these topics

Tools: print | email | write to the editor | subscribe | RSS

California must seek permission to implement ship-emissions rule, court says

Posted at 7:22 AM on 28 Feb 2008

A federal appeals court on Wednesday struck down a California rule aimed at reducing smog-causing emissions from ships in the Los Angeles area. The state had argued that it had the authority to implement the rule without seeking permission from the U.S. EPA since it was simply regulating the fuel used in older, more-polluting auxiliary diesel engines that provide onboard electricity and wasn't dictating emissions requirements. The appeals court disagreed, ruling that California must seek a waiver from the EPA in order to implement the rule. A similar waiver for a state law reducing greenhouse-gas emissions from cars and trucks was recently denied.

sources: Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Reuters

ADVERTISING POLICY

< Previous | Next >

Comments: (3 comments)

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have a Gristmill account, log in below. If you don't have a Gristmill account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.

what the hell is wrong with us??

why is it that our government tries so hard to keep environmental progress at bay?! such a backwards way of doing politics.

by drewpekarek at 11:13 AM on 28 Feb 2008

Ignoring the obvious

It bothers me somewhat that potential solutions to problems seem to go totally ignored because they don't fit into the already decided upon paradigm. For example, diesel powered ships could be made up to 50% less polluting fairly easily. But no one is talking about it. Instead we make rules and deny rules and hope for a brighter future somewhere down the road.

Diesel engines can run on various fuels or combinations of fuels. One way to make ships less polluting would be to convert them to run partially on a Synfuel mix of CO and H2 gas along with diesel fuel.

Such a Synfuel is produced from either a hydrocarbon (such as diesel) and water or a carbon source such as coal, charcoal, or torrified wood and water. With this fuel most or all of the hydrogen portion of the fuel (which contributes most of the energy during combustion) comes from the water used in the process. Because of this CO2 pollution of the engine can be cut up to 50%.

Such systems can be made TODAY and retrofit to ships, trains, big trucks, cars, power plants, etc. We could cut global CO2 output by 50% in a few short years and also lay the groundwork for a hydrogen from water economy while we do it. But we don't even talk about this option. Weird.

http://www.myspace.com/enki09

by enki09 at 10:23 AM on 01 Mar 2008

Live More Simply

Think outside the box of modern idiocy. The problem is not that these ships burn highly polluting fuel, which they do, but that they exist at all, and secondarily that they exist in such large numbers. Global trade is the problem, because even if these ships emitted no air pollution, they would still cause other, serious ecological problems. Massive noise pollution (marine mammals can no longer hear each other over longs distances) and transportation of invasive species (invasive species destroy native ones) are two of them.

We need to move back to localized economies. There's absolutely no reason that everything necessary cannot be made, bought, and sold locally. Anything that cannot be is unnecessary. Of course, mainstream economists will claim the contrary, but what would you rather have: a world run by economists where everything is polluted, most ecosystems are destroyed, and massive numbers of species made extinct, or a more natural world run by sane people like those with traditional indigenous wisdom.

by Wolverine at 12:38 PM on 04 Mar 2008

The comments of Grist users reflect the opinions of those individuals only, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Grist, its staff, its board members, their psychotherapists, or their aestheticians. Got it?