Cargo Ships Could Have A Negative Impact On Oceans

By Heather Ishimaru
Apr.19 - KGO - The United Nations agency that regulates the shipping industry is meeting this week to discuss how to reduce air pollution from ship engines. Such pollution already exceeds all the world's cars trucks and buses combined and the industry is growing.

Ships moving goods and cargo and people across the world's oceans are spewing greenhouse gas emissions and tons of sulfur dioxide into the air as they go. Sulfur dioxide is the pollutant associated with acid rain and respiratory diseases. The problem is dirty fuel.

Fanta Kamakate, ICCT: "The diesel fuel used in oceangoing vessels is basically the remnants, the residual fom the refining process."

Fanta Kamakate is a scientist with San Francisco-based International Council on Clean Transportation, or ICCT. It was founded by the former head of California's EPA. Kamakate and a team of scientists from around the world just finished this study on ship pollution. It offers recommendations for the International Maritime Organization, or IMO, the U.N body responsible for regulating the shipping industry.

Fanta Kamakate: "What we found out is there has been a significant impact from oceangoing vessels on air quality."

Kamakate says ship diesel has a sulfur content of 27,000 parts per million, while diesel fuel in land vehicles is allowed to have only 10 to 15 parts per million...

John McLaurin, Pacific Merchant Shipping Association: "I think our industry is, It takes the issue very seriously."

John McLaurin is spokesman for the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, whose members include virtually anyone doing business on the U.S-Pacific waterfront. In January, the state air resources board required all ships coming close to California's coastline to switch to low-sulfur fuel. The association is fighting that rule in court, saying it's at odds with federal standards.

John McLaurin, Pacific Merchant Shipping Association: "The legal challenge is not dealing with the goals of emissions reduction because I think our industry is committed to that. Its more a jurisdictional issue. You know who has the authority to control emissions? And the state of California is trying to exercise control over vessels at a distance that far exceeds what the federal government does."

McLaurin says the shipping industry is global, not regional. It needs global standards that don't vary port to port, state to state, country to country.

John McLaurin: "What the industry wants more than anything is uniformity and consistency."

The Port of Oakland says Maersk and Evergreen shipping lines took it upon themselves to switch to a low sulfur fuel, but now its up to the IMO to require everyone else to follow suit.

Fanta Kamakate: "Our study identifies some clear steps for the International Maritime Organization to be able to seriously address the problem."

Kamakate says its not expensive to switch to cleaner fuel, and new technologies could also soon help solve the ship pollution problem.

John McLaurin: "The area of ship emissions is I think extremely dynamic. There's a lot of promising technology out there and in the next few years all of that will mature and we'll see some pretty impressive benefits from those efforts."

The IMO meeting ends tomorrow in London. Its unclear when, if at all, new fuel standards will be announced.

To find out what the Port of Oakland is doing to keep the air clean, read The Back Story.

Source: ABC7/KGO-TV/DT.