EPA Proposes Higher Air Pollution Standards for Large Ships

EPA's proposal requires tighter emission standards for new large marine diesel engines and the use of diesel fuel with a lower sulfur content on container ships, tankers, bulk carriers, and cruise ships.

"These emissions are contributing to health, environmental and economic challenges for port communities and others that are miles inland," said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

"Lowering emissions from American ships will help safeguard our port communities, and demonstrate American leadership in protecting our health and the environment around the globe," Jackson said.

The rule follows a proposal last March by the United States and Canada to designate thousands of miles of the two countries’ coasts as an Emission Control Area.

The International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency, begins consideration of the ECA plan this month. If adopted, it would result in stringent standards for large ships operating within 200 nautical miles of the coasts of Canada and the United States, except those of the American Arctic.

The black smoke from this ship near near Marseille, France is typical of many large cargo vessels.  (Photo by Roberto Venturini)

The EPA's proposed rule under the Clean Air Act is designed to reflect the IMO’s standards for Emission Control Areas and broader worldwide program.

Air pollution from large ships, such as oil tankers and cargo ships, is expected to grow rapidly over the next 20 years as port traffic increases.

By 2030, the domestic and international strategy is expected to reduce annual emissions of nitrogen oxides, NOx, from large marine diesel engines by about 1.2 million tons and particulate matter emissions by about 143,000 tons.

When fully implemented, the coordinated effort would reduce NOx emissions by 80 percent and particle emissions by 85 percent compared to current emission levels.

To achieve these reductions, ships must use fuel with no more than 1,000 parts per million sulfur beginning in 2015, and new ships will have to use advanced emission control technologies beginning in 2016.

The emission reductions from the proposed strategy would yield health and welfare benefits that would span beyond U.S. ports and coastlines, reaching inland areas, Jackson says.

EPA estimates that in 2030, this effort would prevent between 13,000 and 33,000 premature deaths, 1.5 million work days lost, and 10 million minor restricted-activity days.

The estimated annual health benefits in 2030 as a result of reduced air pollution are valued between $110 and $280 billion at an annual projected cost of about $3.1 billion - as high as a 90-to-1 benefit-to-cost ratio.

Conservation groups welcomed the proposed rulemaking, but said even wider controls are needed.

"EPA is finally recognizing that it's time to regulate the massive amounts of air pollution ships produce," said Jacqueline Savitz, senior campaign director for the nonprofit group Oceana. "Next they need to deal with carbon dioxide and other global warming pollution from ships because climate change is happening now, and we simply have no time to waste."

While this proposed rule is an important first step, it addresses only some of many pollutants from ocean-going vessels that harm human health and contribute to global warming, conservationists say.

They point out that the rule fails to address emissions of global warming pollutants such as carbon dioxide and black carbon. Nor does it apply to the existing polluting shipping fleet.

Earthjustice filed a lawsuit on behalf of Friends of the Earth in 2007 asking the EPA to address particulate matter and nitrogen oxides from large marine vessels.

Earthjustice, Friends of the Earth, Oceana and the Center for Biological Diversity have also petitioned EPA to enact rules under the Clean Air Act to address the emissions of global warming pollutants from ships including CO2 and black carbon, and urge EPA to do so expeditiously.

"We will remain vigilant to ensure that foreign flagged ships operating in U.S. waters, including the American Arctic, are held to this new standard to protect the health of coastal communities and reduce emissions of global warming pollutants," said Martin Wagner of Earthjustice.

The groups are urging EPA to include the Arctic in its proposed Emissions Control Area, so that the proposed NOx standards will protect the health of vulnerable Alaskan populations and reduce emissions of a critical global warming pollutant, tropospheric ozone.

Reducing emissions of short-lived climate forcing agents like tropospheric ozone and black carbon is widely considered to be among the most effective strategies for slowing Arctic and global warming in the near term and for averting the worst projected consequences of Arctic warming, such as the melting of sea ice and the Greenland ice sheet, sea level rise, and permafrost melt resulting in release of carbon dioxide and methane.

Click here for more information on the proposed Clean Air Act standards and the ECA designation.

Copyright Environment News Service, ENS, 2009. All rights reserved.