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EPA announces tough air-pollution standards for shipping industry

Posted at 2:08 PM on 14 Mar 2008

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.

sources: Reuters, Associated Press, Environmental Defense Fund
see also, in Grist: Green group ranks eco-friendliness of shipping companies, How companies are driving down the impacts of shipping

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Comments: (4 comments)

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Not Little, But Very Late

These are huge reductions of the two worst emissions from diesel engines, but wassup with not even beginning them until 2015? I realize that either new engines must be built or the current ones retrofitted, but neither of these things take anywhere near that long.

by Wolverine at 4:36 PM on 14 Mar 2008

Do Not Be Fooled

These regs apply only to Category 1 and 2 engines (including those on recreational vehicles, passenger ferries, tugboats etc.) -- NOT Category 3 engines which are the biggest and dirtiest marine engines used to propel oil tankers, cargo ships, cruise ships etc. So, while setting these strict emissions standards for smaller engines (and applying them to remanufactured as well as new engines) is definitely a good thing, it does not address the majority of ship emissions contributing to poor air quality in coastal areas.

by shb at 5:28 PM on 14 Mar 2008

Category Information

SHB,
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.

by Wolverine at 11:51 AM on 16 Mar 2008

Get Those Polluters

I'm glad someone is finally coming after those polluters. Here's one of them now:

http://archive.greenpeace.org/marine/mvgp_gen.html

by jabailo at 1:09 PM on 16 Mar 2008

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