Regulating a Global Killer

Oceangoing vessels are silent, invisible killers that burn the dirtiest of all petroleum products—bunker fuel. Bunker fuel is the thick sludge that remains after the purest and most high quality oil has been refined into jet fuel, gasoline and plastics. It is then used to propel ships that have engines unregulated for pollution controls. . The impact of burning bunker fuel in the substandard engines of the over 90,000 cargo ships? Globally, more than 60,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of cases of asthma, heart attacks and other ailments every year.

In early August, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held a hearing in Long Beach for the public to comment on a proposed rule to impose engine standards that would dramatically reduce smog-forming nitrogen dioxide emissions from newly built U.S. flagged oceangoing vessels. This regulation is intended to complement new international standards and a joint U.S. – Canada proposal for an Emissions Control Area (ECA) that would mandate cleaner fuels and cleaner burning engines on some oceangoing vessels.

I spoke at this hearing along with government agencies, public health and environmental organizations, and community groups to tell the EPA that while we welcome this effort to regulate emissions from new ships, they need to go much farther. Here’s how:

The vast majority of ships that enter our U.S. ports are foreign flag vessels and are responsible for almost 90% of vessel emissions. The EPA rule must apply to all vessels regardless of which country they are registered in. Also, since the lifespan of a ship is decades rather than years, they will cause unnecessary deaths and sickness throughout our lifetimes. We cannot afford to wait decades to clean up ship emissions-- the EPA needs to regulate new and in-use vessels. Third, the rule does not set any standard for particulate matter (PM) pollution which has been repeatedly singled out as a major cause of premature deaths, cancer, and asthma. The EPA should establish strict PM standards to protect the health of our communities.

Without aggressive comprehensive regulation ships will become the largest single source of air pollution in the U.S. by 2030. Dozens of residents of Los Angeles and Long Beach port communities came to the EPA hearing to tell stories of how ship pollution causes cancer in their families, asthma in their children, and robs their communities of the right to clean air and a healthy environment. And it is true that port communities and coastal metropolitan areas will continue to bear the greatest burden and feel the greatest impacts from ship pollution. However, if you’re inland, you’re still not immune. Significant amounts of pollution from these ships have been shown to travel hundreds of miles not only up and down our coasts but also as far into the interior of our country as Kansas. We’re all impacted by ship pollution and in this way we’re all port communities.

PS: We’ll be setting up a way for you to send in comments to the EPA on this issue in September. Be on the look-out!