Thursday, December 17, 2009

Pasha In Grays Harbor Port Deal With Chrysler

Huntington Beach, Calif.-based logistics firm Pasha Group announced that it has secured Chrysler Group LLC as a new customer at the Washington state Port of Grays Harbor.

Chrysler will use Pasha's Terminal 4 auto facility to support the carmaker's export vehicle requirements from the Pacific Northwest to Asia. The first vessel under the deal is set to arrive at Terminal 4 on Jan. 24, 2010.

Financial details and terms of the deal were not released.

Grays Harbor, a deep-water port located directly on the Pacific Coast, has direct Union Pacific Railroad on-dock connections that will be used by Chrysler.

LA, LB and Tacoma Box Numbers Down, Seattle Up

The two major ports in California and one of the two major ports in Washington state have reported declines in total containers handled during November, with only the Port of Seattle reporting positive growth.

Total container traffic volume at the Port of Long Beach fell 19.6 percent to 448,151 TEUs in November compared to November 2008. Loaded inbound container volume dropped 14.7 percent for the month, while loaded outbound box volume grew 4 percent. For the first 11 months of the year, the port handled 4,600,360 TEUs, off 24.1 percent from the same period last year.

At the neighboring Port of Los Angeles, total box volume fell to 580,206 TEUs for November, off 12 percent from the same month last year. Loaded inbound box volume fell 11.8 percent for the month, while loaded outbound box volume turned in a sizable 17.8 percent increase over the year-ago period. For the January to November period, total box volume at the port was reported as 6,186,004 TEUs, off 15.1 percent from the same period in 2008.

In Puget Sound, the Port of Seattle turned in its fourth straight month of increased total box volume, reporting 152,593 TEUs handled in November--a 15.1 percent increase compared to November of 2008. The port also reported loaded inbound box volume grew a whopping 34.4 and loaded outbound box volume rose 27.1 percent compared to the year-ago period. Despite the increases, and similar numbers over the past several months, the port remains in the negative for the year. During the first 11 months of the year, the Seattle port handled 1,437,953 TEUs, a decline of 9.7 percent compared to the January to November period in 2008.

In opposition to the positive news from Seattle, the nearby Port of Tacoma turned in its eleventh straight month of negative growth for the year. Tacoma handled 117,884 TEUs in November, an 18 percent drop from the total box volume reported in November 2008. Loaded inbound container volume dropped 27 percent and loaded outbound container volume fell 13.7 percent for the month. For the year to date, the port's total box volume is 1,429,295 TEUs, off 16.7 percent compared to the first 11 months of last year.

Horizon Lines Axes Exec Perks

As part of an ongoing cost-cutting program, Charlotte, NC-based Jones Act carrier Horizon Lines plans to eliminate corporate perks for the firm's four top executives.

The Compensation Committee of the Horizon Board of Directors approved the move on Wednesday as part of a company-wide effort to eliminate perquisites at all levels.

“We believe the perquisite elimination for executive officers is consistent with emerging best practices in corporate governance,” said Chuck Raymond, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “In this ongoing challenging business environment, we as senior managers must continue to set new standards that support the organization as it strives for increased efficiencies and customer service excellence.”

According to a Horizon statement, the eliminated perks include, but are not limited to, country club memberships, automobile allowances and tax “gross-up” payments made to reimburse an executive officer for individual income tax incurred with respect to a perquisite.

Horizon plans to increase the base salaries of the four executives as of Jan. 1, 2010 to partially offset the eliminated perks. However, said the firm, no adjustments will be made to the salaries to compensate for tax "gross-up" payments.

In addition to Raymond, the executive targeted by the move include Michael T. Avara, senior vice president and CFO; John V. Keenan, president and COO; and Brian W. Taylor, president and COO of Horizon Logistics Holdings.

Like many carriers, Horizon has been struggling through the global economic downturn. The carrier reported third quarter revenues of $308 million, a 12.6 percent slide from the year ago period and profits of $8.4 million, a 24.3 percent decline from the third quarter of 2008.

City Council Ends Discussion of Taking More Long Beach Port Money

The Long Beach City Council on Tuesday voted 7-2 to table further discussion of a city charter amendment that would increase the Port of Long Beach's annual transfer of profits to the city's coffers.

The amendment effort, the latest in a unsuccessful string of such attempts over the past several years, sought to increase the amount of port profits transferred to the city from the current 10 percent limit to either 15 percent or 20 percent. Approved in the 1980s, the 10 percent transfer is not automatic and must be requested by City Hall, which the city never did until it was hit with economic woes in the early 1990s. Since then, the city has requested the funds each year. Last year, the port transferred $16 million to the city under the rule.

Port officials, local business groups, and a large coalition of shipping industry trade groups vehemently opposed the increase of the port transfer.

City Council proponents of the plan had been hoping to have the increase language moved to a council committee that oversees ballot initiatives. As part of the city charter, any change to the port transfer would have to be voted on by the citizens of Long Beach. Tuesday's council vote, however, did not send the item to the council committee and based on election schedules, the item, if passed through the council in the future, would not be eligible for a ballot until 2011.

Special Feature: The State of the Port Environment

By: T.L. Garrett (As seen in the December issue of Pacific Maritime Magazine)

For many years now ports have been the target of extensive criticism regarding their environmental impacts. They were generally characterized as the largest and least regulated sources of pollution. In many ways the criticism was accurate, but it was a reflection of the lack of regulatory focus on Port sources. Let’s be honest, it took the International Maritime Organization (IMO) well over a decade to develop the first air quality standards for vessels. Those standards were limited to reflect the emission levels of existing vessels and marine fuels, hardly technology forcing. EPA took even longer to regulate vessels and when they did they adopted the same international standards and then limited them to US flagged vessels.

States, on the other hand, generally took the position that regulating vessels was outside their jurisdiction and relied on federal and international regulation to control those sources. Meanwhile Ports were experiencing incredible levels of growth, a doubling and tripling of “throughput” amidst these modest regulatory developments. Ocean-carriers were responding to that growth by ordering and deploying larger, faster vessels to serve the ever-increasing global demand for goods without any meaningful air quality requirements. In short, something had to give and the stage was set for dramatic changes.

Initially, pushing for change was incredibly difficult because of several factors: The lack of regulations, and more importantly, the lack of available technology to reduce emissions. Reliability, durability, efficiency, and economies of scale were the primary drivers for vessel engine design, not emission control. These goals are not exclusive of each other; indeed the platform, the diesel engine, was already meeting the major objectives by being the most efficient engine available resulting in lower energy consumption compared to any other form of transportation engine. But that is not enough if public health and green house gas goals are to be achieved.

Enter the era of voluntary measures. Recognizing that change was coming and having a desire to minimize the need for regulations terminal operators and ocean-carriers initiated voluntary programs and participated in those created by port authorities. Tugboat repowers and purchase of alternative fuel yard tractors began in the late 1990’s under the Carl Moyer diesel replacement incentive program in California. This was quickly followed by the Voluntary Ship Speed Reduction Program in Southern California that began in 2001. The Port of Los Angeles then initiated a voluntary retrofit program in 2002 that resulted in more than 1,200 cargo handling equipment pieces being equipped with diesel oxidation catalysts. The first contracts were signed only days after the California Air Resources Board (CARB) certified the equipment. Meanwhile, the Pacific Northwest ports worked with customers and others to produce a comprehensive emissions inventory and strategy that targeted goals and voluntary efforts including many of the same things (retrofits, cleaner fuel use, shore power, etc.). Combined with the innovative use of emulsified diesel fuel, a technology that has now been left behind, these initial steps ensured that growth at the ports could continue while actually reducing overall emissions.

As early as 2002, ships began using low-sulfur distillate fuel in auxiliary generators. And the first shore-power project to shut down auxiliary generators and connect to the electrical grid was a voluntary industry effort. Other ocean-carriers began experimenting with advanced injector technologies, electronically controlled engines, on-board fuel emulsification systems, waste heat recovery systems, on-board emission scrubbers, exhaust gas recirculation, selective catalytic reduction, alternative fuels, and renewable biofuels. The list continues to grow. These new engine technologies, combined with existing highly efficient engines are combined in larger vessels resulting in greater economies of scale to move increasing volumes of cargo even more efficiently.

These developments have not gone unnoticed by the regulators. Beginning in 2005, frustrated with the lack of national and international regulations to reduce emissions from goods movement sources, CARB initiated the first of a series of regulations to reduce emissions from cargo handling equipment, workboats, trucks, and vessels. All of these state regulations took the examples of successful voluntary incentive programs and made them mandatory requirements. For the most part these regulations have gone forward without opposition, and in some cases with the support of the sectors being regulated. These included the use of ultra-low sulfur fuel in advance of federal requirements, the retrofit and replacement of cargo handling equipment, the accelerated turnover of the drayage truck fleet, the repowering of workboats, and the requirement to connect vessels to grid-based shore power.

Where the industry has been in opposition has not been about the goals or even the methods to reduce emissions, it has been about the perceived abuse of authority or the avocation of specified technologies or fuels based on politics rather than science. The Pacific Merchant Shipping Association successfully challenged the CARB Auxiliary Fuel regulation on the basis that the state did not have authority to regulate vessels under the Clean Air Act without first getting authorization from the US EPA – which if CARB had pursued, would have created a defacto uniform national standard once the waiver was approved. Our current challenge to the Low-Sulfur Fuel regulation is about the authority to regulate vessels beyond the traditional three nautical mile limit under federal law. At the same time the industry has fully supported the approved and recently amended stringent regulations of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the establishment of a US/Canada Emission Control Area. The IMO regulations require the use of the same low-sulfur marine fuels as the CARB regulation, at a much greater distance from shore, 200 nautical miles (nm) versus 24 nm, and the requirement for future vessel engines to be 80 percent cleaner than those in use today. Not only will the implementation of these international requirements result in greater emission reductions than the CARB regulation, although three years later, they will also provide a much needed uniform regulatory scheme for all ports without placing a specific port at a competitive disadvantage.

With the increasing recognition of climate change the industry is already responding to the need to further reduce their carbon footprint. Although vessels are already by far the most efficient way to move the world’s goods, ocean-carriers have already recognized that the highly efficient engines and economies of scale are not enough. They have begun using better hull coatings to reduce drag, advanced propeller designs to improve efficiency, and futuristic hull designs. Technology is also being used to improve voyage planning to avoid adverse weather conditions and allow for optimized speed management that balances just-in-time delivery with minimal use of energy. Some companies are now deploying vessels with solar panel arrays, wind assist, hybrid diesel-electric propulsion, and even fuel cells. Dockside there is development of alternative fuel generators and stack-gas emission treatment systems that could be used where grid-based infrastructure does not exist.

This is just the beginning of the innovations to reduce the carbon and emission footprint of the industry. All of this development has occurred within the last decade and regulations are only now going into effect. Nonetheless, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach already have seen dramatic improvements as a result of these initial efforts. The most recent inventory completed for 2008 showed greater than a 30 percent reduction in diesel particulates and for sulfur oxides compared with the 2005 inventory. These emission reductions occurred even though cargo volume increased. Looking towards the future the same inventories showed even greater reductions in emissions per TEU between 23 to 35 percent for criteria pollutants when compared to 2005, demonstrating that efficiencies in cargo movement continue to improve. Further evidence of this was a decrease in green house gases from the previous levels. In the Pacific Northwest the ports are working with their customers to implement low sulfur fuel use at the dock, retrofits and cleaner fuel use for cargo handling equipment, shore power for cruise and more rapid phase out of older trucks and terminal equipment.

With all of the effort that is being expended and the new regulatory era on the horizon it seems clear that the maritime industry will continue to improve as the most efficient mode of transportation that is also increasingly environmentally friendly. Maybe it is time for a little more praise and a little less criticism.

PMSA represents the shipping lines and terminal operators that move approximately ninety percent of the containerized cargo on the West Coast of the United States. Mr. Garrett’s focus is primarily on air quality regulatory and legislative issues at all levels of government. He has extensive experience in reviewing air quality technical reports, regulations, and legislation, and providing input on behalf of PMSA members. Prior to PMSA he was an Environmental Supervisor for the Port of Los Angeles in charge of the Air Resources Section.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Port of LB Tideland Transfer Funds Threatened by City

Three Long Beach City Council members have recommended changing the City Charter to increase the annual transfer from the Port of Long Beach. The Long Beach City Council will consider the increase today at 5 p.m.

Currently, the Port of Long Beach transfers 10 percent of its net revenue to the City of Long Beach on an annual basis. The port also provides additional funding for various city projects ranging from financing of the city’s convention center to providing a financial backstop to the city aquarium.

The Port of Long Beach is the only port that annually transfers money to their City government. According to the Port of Long Beach’s FY10 budget materials, the Port has invested more than $790 million into the City of Long Beach since 1990. That equates to approximately $41.5 million per year on average.

Maritime industry advocates are concerned that increasing the Port’s financial obligation to the city will erode the Port of Long Beach’s competitive position among other West Coast ports.

Port of Long Beach industry advocates urge those concerned about decreases in the Port’s operating funds to attend this evening’s meeting and/or contact Long Beach City Council members and urge them to protect the current status quo.

King County Approves Rail Corridor Funds

Washington State’s King County Council approved an ordinance Monday clearing the way for up to $26.5 million to be spent on the purchase of portions of an abandoned rail corridor that runs through Renton, Bellevue, Kirkland, Woodinville and Redmond.

The move comes shortly on the heels of a similar move by the Sound Transit board of directors authorizing the expenditure of up to $14 million for just over a mile of the corridor that runs through Bellevue. The board also authorized negotiations to purchase an easement along a longer stretch of the corridor for possible future use as a commuter train corridor.

The City of Redmond could wind up paying close to $9 million for the portion of the corridor that runs through its borders. In addition, the Cascade Water Alliance and Puget Sound Energy are looking to purchase utility easements along the corridor.

The tracks and easements being sought by King County, Sound Transit and other local entities are part of a larger 42-mile Renton-to-Snohomish rail corridor abandoned by BNSF Railway. The Port of Seattle is in the process of buying the entire rail corridor and plans to negotiate with the local agencies for the rights to certain local stretches. The Port purchase is expected to close on Thursday. For its part, the Port plans to maintain freight service on the corridor north of Woodinville.

Vancouver USA Commissioner Proposes Board Expansion

The Washington state Port of Vancouver's port commissioner Jerry Oliver has suggested increasing the three-member governing board to five members, citing public meeting rules that forbid any two commissioners from having private conversations about board business.

Oliver's idea to change the 97-year-old make up of the board, however, does not appear to be gaining many supporters.

Port Executive Director Larry Paulson told The Columbian that adding more commissioners would certainly cost the port more money at a time when port officials are trying to keep costs down. The three commissioners, which are elected for six-year terms and receive wages, benefits and travel expenses, cost the port collectively about $36,000 a year.

Former port commissioner Arch Miller, who thinks the smaller commission works better, also told the paper that new commissioners would add extra costs because the new board members would likely need additional support staff.

Current commissioner Nancy Baker told the paper that she does not share Oliver's concerns about communications. She said such a proposal raises numerous questions that would need to be answered, such as the potential costs of expanding the commission and what might happen to the port district boundaries.

Current commissioner Brian Wolfe said he doesn't think the three-member board is the best way to govern, and told the paper that he would have to see some costs analysis before moving forward.

On Oliver's motion, port staff were directed to prepare a report on the topic before the January commission meeting.

If the proposal does move through the commission, it would still have to be approved by the voters.

Los Angeles Port Approves 2010 Economic Relief Package For Tenants

The five-member governing board for the Port of Los Angeles has approved $25.7 million in discounts, rate cuts and reduced rent for its tenants in 2010, citing a desire to help port tenants remain competitive and prevent diversions to other ports in tough economic times.

Nearly $20 million of the 2010 package will go toward an economic relief program that will provide each customer with a one-time credit in the amount of 6 percent of revenue paid in the 2007/2008 fiscal year, set to be paid out in the first six months of 2010.

The new package also includes an empty container rate reduction if the tenant's empty container numbers surpass 20 percent of total container volume for the terminal.

The final component of the 2010 package is a 50 percent reduction of the single wharfage rate for trans-shipped merchandise.

Port of Los Angeles tenants include APM Terminals, China Shipping Holding, Eagle Marine Services, Evergreen America, TraPac, Yang Ming Line, and Yusen Terminals, Inc.

The 2010 savings and incentive package mirrors a $14.8 million package the port put into effect earlier this year which included a 10 percent discount to customers on every intermodal container moving through tenant terminals, an incentive for eligible ocean common carriers which record an increase in the amount of intermodal containers moved through their terminals compared to the previous fiscal year, and a 50 percent rate reduction on up to six acres of space assignments. All of the 2009 package components expire on December 31,2009.

SoCal Ports Pick UP EPA Award For Truck Program

The end-of-the-year award season is upon us and the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles have picked up a big one.

The US Environmental Protection Agency on Monday awarded the agency's 2009 Environmental Justice Achievement Award to the adjacent ports for their jointly-developed-but-separately-implemented Clean Truck Program.

The CTP, which seeks to cut ports-servicing truck pollution by 80 by 2012 by banning certain model year trucks is several stages, will by the Jan. 1, 2010 implementation of the second CTP ban, be nearly two years ahead of schedule, according to the ports.

The first ban, implemented in October 2008, banned all pre-1989 trucks from servicing the ports and the impending Jan. 1, 2010 ban will do the same to all pre-1994 trucks and all 1994-2003 models without retrofit pollution control devices. A final ban in 2012 would eliminate all pre-2007 model year trucks from entering the ports.

The first ban eliminated more than 2,200 trucks from the more than 19,000 pre-CTP ports-servicing truck fleet, while the Jan. 1, 2010 ban is expected to ban another 8,000 trucks.

The EPA called the CTP "the largest, most aggressive air quality program at any port complex in the world." In bestowing the award, the EPA cited the ports "aggressive" outreach to both the community and stakeholders, including the development of the Clean Air Action Plan Stakeholder Group, which includes environmental and community-based organizations.

Although cited as a positive step by the EPA, the stakeholders group, which met in the early development stages of the truck program, was highly criticized by members at the time as not offering real public input into the plan.

The Port of Los Angeles version of the CTP remains mired in litigation, with portions of the program currently under injunction by a federal court. The port will face off in federal court against the American Trucking Associations early next year to determine if the injuncted portions of the Los Angeles-version of the truck program will be permanently stuck down. Officials at the neighboring Long Beach port reached and agreement with the ATA in October and have since been removed from the ongoing litigation.

Hapag-Lloyd's Revenue Off Nearly 30 Percent

German ocean carrier Hapag-Lloyd reported $986 million operating loss in the first nine months of 2009, citing massive declines in cargo volumes and dwindling ocean freight rates.

Revenue for the carrier, Germany's largest, shrank by 29 percent during the first nine months of the year, ending at $4.8 billion compared to $6.7 billion in the same period a year ago.

German tourism group TUI, which owns a 43.3 percent stake in Hapag-Lloyd, said that the losses were expected to continue through the end of the current financial year. Other major investors predicted that the losses would continue through 2010.

TUI provided Hapag-Lloyd with a $1 billion infusion of financial aid in October, and the carrier also received loan guarantees worth $1.8 billion from the German federal government and the City of Hamburg.

In related news, TUI's largest shareholder, John Fredriksen, failed in his third attempt to gain a seat on the TUI Board of Directors.

PMSA to Challenge CARB Low-Sulfur Vessel Fuel Rule Again

A leading shipping industry trade group will again challenge a California Air Resources Board requirement that ocean-going vessels use low-sulfur fuel within 24-miles of the California coast.

The Pacific Maritime Shipping Association, which represents roughly 90 percent of the shipping lines and terminal operators on the West Coast, filed the challenge to the state rule in the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

In 2008, CARB issued a rule attempting to achieve the same 24-mile-from-the-coast boundary for low-sulfur fuel use, but after only months of being in effect a PMSA legal challenge resulted in the rule being struck down by the court. However, the PMSA encouraged its members to continue using the low-sulfur fuel, which the majority did. Following the legal setback, CARB reworked the rule to avoid conflict with the previous legal ruling and reissued it.

Just as in the previous case, the PMSA argues that the state is still attempting to regulate international trade and has overstepped its legal authority. Previous legal rulings have determined that state authority only extends to the 3-mile-from-the-coast boundary and beyond this is under federal jurisdiction.

The PMSA believes that more effective standards for international vessels– which are governed by international treaties– should be developed at the national and international level.

The appeals court plans to take written testimony from both sides before issuing a ruling some time next year.

Pacer Chair/CEO Abruptly Resigns

Logistics service provider Pacer International has announced that chairman and CEO Michael Uremovich will retire, effective at the close of business Tuesday. No reason was given for the departure.

Daniel Avramovich, who has served as the Concord, California-based firm's COO since June, will succeed Uremovich as CEO. Avramovich will also be appointed as a director and chairman of the Pacer board of directors.

“Dan Avramovich has not only proven to be an effective leader for Pacer, he has a clear vision and plan for Pacer’s future that has been embraced by our board of directors and leadership team,” said the outgoing Uremovich in a release.

Uremovich was appointed chairman and CEO of Pacer in November 2003, with executive responsibility for all Pacer International business units. He joined Pacer as Vice Chairman in October of 2003 after serving as a consultant to the company for several years. Immediately prior to joining Pacer, he was a principal owner of Manalytics International, a San Francisco-based consulting firm. He served as Vice President of Marketing for Southern Pacific Transportation and President of TSSI, SP's logistics operating company during the early to mid-1990s.

During the 1980s, Mr. Uremovich held a number of senior executive positions at American President Companies in both domestic and international operations, including Senior Vice President Marketing, Vice President Pricing, and Vice President Strategic Planning. In his consulting career, he has been the Managing Director of the Worldwide Transportation practice for Coopers & Lybrand LLC, and a Principal at Booz Allen and Hamilton.

The incoming Avramovich joined Pacer in 2008 after more than 25 years of senior leadership with some of the transportation and logistics industry experts, including most recently Kansas City Southern and Exel Logistics.

Fidley Watch: Political Science

(As seen in the December issue of Pacific Maritime Magazine)

The Dog Ate My Data
As the old adage says, bad decisions make good stories. According to a recent story in the London Sunday Times, Scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based.

According to the Times, the data were gathered from weather stations around the world and then adjusted to take account of variables in the way they were collected. The revised figures were kept, but the originals were dumped to save space when the Climate Research Unit (CRU) moved to a new building.

The revelation comes shortly after a hacker exposed more than 3,000 emails and documents from computers at the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU) in the UK. The CRU is the data repository for much of the world’s climate research and is a major source for the judgments reached by the UN’s climate reports. The emails, widely disseminated on the web, show the “science” behind the theory of ‘anthropomorphic (man-made) global warming’ (AGW) on which the world is basing its environmental policies. Some excerpts:

“Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4? Keith will do likewise.”
“…try and change the Received date! Don’t give those skeptics something to amuse themselves with.”
“If they ever hear there is a Freedom of Information Act now in the UK, I think I’ll delete the file rather than send to anyone.”
“This is the sort of “dirty laundry” one doesn’t want to fall into the hands of those who might potentially try to distort things...”

A reputable scientist should be ready to stand behind his data, not fudge it or throw it away if it doesn’t fit is pre-conceived notion.

Waiting to Exhale

Washington State House Bill 2815, that passed in 2008, requires the owners or operators of large fleets of vehicles and large stationary sources of greenhouse gases to start reporting their emissions in 2010.

The first reporting period will be for 2009 emissions, and emitters whose 2009 emissions meet the reporting thresholds must report their emissions to the Department of Ecology by Oct. 31, 2010.

The rule will apply to owners or operators of sites or fleets of non-road mobile sources that produce more than 10,000 metric tons (MT) of CO2, or fleets of on-road motor vehicles that produce more than 2,500 MT CO2 per year.

The State bases its science on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports. The IPCC get their data from the CRU, mentioned above, whose data has been cast under suspicion by the release of the offending emails and the discovery that much of the raw data on which the scientific community has based its global warming theories was discarded. Seth Preston, Ecology communications manager, says he hasn’t heard of any change in the Bill since the aforementioned emails were made public.

The proposed 129-page rule can be found here: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/laws-rules/activity/wac173441.html

Some portions of the proposed rule:

If a marine vessel’s arrival and departure points are both inside the waters of the state, then the owner or operator must assign greenhouse gas emissions to Washington State.

“Fugitive emissions” means emissions, which could not reasonably pass through a stack, chimney, vent, or other functionally equivalent opening.

And of course, the most important part of the rule:

An inventory of greenhouse gas emissions will support the legislature’s intent to limit and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases consistent with the emissions reductions requirements established in RCW 70.235.020.

The bill was sponsored by 32 Democrats and one lone Republican. As an exercise, I calculated the carbon emissions (respired, mind you, not ‘fugitive’) likely to come from State Employees.

A human emits roughly 510 lbs. of CO2 per year. Washington State has 63,566 employees in the executive branch, producing 31,512,390 lbs. or 14,294 metric tons of CO2 per year- more than enough to qualify as either a site or mobile source. Add the Legislative Branch (729) and the judicial Branch (606) and the CO2 emissions pass 15,000 metric tons.

Will the State be hiring more staff to calculate staff emissions?

Robert P. Magee, Jr.

One of my first interviews as new managing editor of Pacific Maritime Magazine was with Robert P. Magee, Jr., then President and CEO of Totem Ocean Trailer Express, for a story on the company’s 25th anniversary. I found him to be very engaging and generous with his time, and in the years that followed, I was impressed that a man who was running such a large company always seemed to have time to chat, answer questions or give advice. It was with sadness that I learned late last month that Bob had lost his struggle with cancer.

Bob is survived by his wife, Marie, two grown daughters, and thousands of friends in the commercial maritime community.

Chris Philips, Managing Editor