Study: Cruise Industry Leads in Environmental Performance

By Mark Edward Nero

The cruise industry is a leader in the development of innovative technologies, the reduction of air emissions and wastewater treatment practices, according to a new study released March 30 by Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA).

The study provides the first-ever wide-ranging analysis by independent maritime environmental experts of the cruise industry’s environmental practices and performance. It found that with both air emissions and wastewater treatment practices, CLIA members are leaders in the global commercial maritime sector in the development of innovative technologies to advance environmental stewardship. It also found that CLIA members lead in the development of industry policies and best practices that increase positive environmental performance, and that although cruise ships represent less than one percent of the global commercial maritime fleet, the industry’s actions have substantially contributed to the maritime community’s initiatives in environmental stewardship.

The detailed study, which was commissioned by CLIA and prepared by Energy and Environmental Research Associates, LLC, (EERA) analyzed the practices and performance of the CLIA members’ global fleet of about 300 ocean-going cruise ships, as well as the industry’s investment in technological innovation aboard newly built ships in its growing fleet.

When comparing the level of emissions from all commercial shipping vessels at ports where cruise ships visit in the US and Europe, the study found that the at-berth emissions of cruise ships account for only three percent and 1.2 percent of all emissions within those ports in the US and Europe, respectively.

Overall, EERA found that CLIA members meet or exceed international air emission requirements and are leaders in the maritime sector in adopting cleaner fuels, controlling air emissions and preparing vessels to connect to shore-based energy systems.

Technologies and best practices identified in the EERA report include:

• Systems to reduce air emissions from exhaust stacks, including, as one example, advanced exhaust gas cleaning systems to reduce sulfur oxide and particulate matter.

• The use of shore power where available, and noting that CLIA members’ use of advancements in alternative fuels and emissions abatement technologies could reduce the need for investment in additional shore power in the future.

• Fuel switching to lower sulfur fuel before entering an emission control area, if other methods of emissions abatement aren’t otherwise available on a cruise ship.

• Investment in the use of alternative fuels such as liquefied natural gas, with an increasing number of new build orders for LNG-fueled ships.

The full report can be read and downloaded at http://cruising.org/docs/default-source/research/environment-research-2017.pdf.

San Pedro Bay Ports Updating Clean Air Plan

By Mark Edward Nero

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have proposed an update to their San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan than includes aggressively deploying zero and near-zero emission trucks and cargo-handling equipment, as well as expanding programs that reduce ship emissions.

Proposals also focus on freight infrastructure investment, innovation and technology to improve supply chain efficiency, comprehensive energy planning, and increased advocacy for stricter emissions standards and government incentives to help pay for projects that advance testing and commercialization of zero and near-zero emission vehicles.

The proposals were publicly unveiled Nov. 18 when port officials met to mark the 10th anniversary of the landmark initiative and unveil the CAAP 2017 Discussion Document, which outlines new concepts under consideration for the third iteration of the CAAP.

The discussion document prioritizes reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from port-related sources 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, which aligns with California’s clean air goals and objectives in the state’s new Sustainable Freight Action Plan, as well as efforts by the cities of Los Angeles and Long Beach to shrink GHG emissions ahead of state targets.

The joint meeting kicked off a three-month public review and comment period that extends through Feb. 17, 2017. The ports plan to incorporate public comments received and present the 2017 CAAP Update for final consideration by their governing boards in spring 2017 at another joint harbor commission meeting.

Developed with input from industry, government, community and environmental stakeholders, the Discussion Document recommends a new suite of incentives, lease requirements and regulatory approaches to achieve CAAP goals. The working document contains more bold measures for moving the San Pedro Bay ports toward their goal of eliminating all harmful air pollution from port-related sources.

They include near- and long-term proposals in five categories: Clean Vehicles; Equipment Technology and Fuels; Freight Infrastructure Investment and Planning; Freight Efficiency; and Energy Resource Planning.

The ports say that CAAP 2017 improves upon the initial plan adopted in 2006 – and updated in 2010 – to reduce emissions from all port-related sources: ships, trucks, trains, cargo-handling and smaller harbor craft, such as tugboats.

Under the CAAP, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach say they’ve have reduced diesel particulate matter about 85 percent, cut NOx in half, eliminated 97 percent of SOx, and lowered GHG an average of 12 percent, even while container volume has increased seven percent.

The findings also show the ports continue to exceed their 2023 targets for reducing DPM and SOx (77 percent and 93 percent respectively) and are closing in on their 2023 target of reducing NOx emissions by 59 percent.

The discussion document is available at www.polb.com, www.portoflosangeles.org and www.cleanairactionplan.org.

During the review period, the ports are expected to hold additional community meetings to gather public comment on the discussion document.

Written comments may be submitted to caap@cleanairactionplan.org at any time during the review period.

POLA Schedules 1st Environmental Open House

By Mark Edward Nero

The Port of Los Angeles will hold the first of a series of quarterly open houses on Oct. 20 as part of a continuing effort to engage the public in the port’s sustainable freight programs and environmental developments.

The forums have been organized, the port says, to provide a greater level of communication on port emission-reducing projects and encourage more direct stakeholder engagement in sustainability initiatives.

“Over the past decade, the Port of Los Angeles has made significant progress in reducing emissions related to goods movement,” Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said in a prepared statement. “These open houses allow us to better connect with all our stakeholders and nearby communities, seek their valuable input and share our continued air quality improvement progress.”

The first quarterly open house begins at 5 p.m. at CRAFTED at the Port of Los Angeles, 112 E. 22nd St, San Pedro. RSVPs may be emailed to environmental@portla.org but are not mandatory. Additional open house details can be found at https://www.portoflosangeles.org/environment/progress/calendar/community-meeting/.

The forum is expected to include updates on emission-reducing projects and opportunities provided by a member of the port’s 10-member Sustainable Freight Advisory Committee, which was recently appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to help advance sustainable policy and expand the port’s use of zero-emission technology. The open houses and advisory committee are among several initiatives being undertaken by the port to keep the public informed of its sustainable goods movement progress. Others include the port’s new “Sustainable Progress” website (https://www.portoflosangeles.org/environment/progress/), which provides at-a-glance details, statistics and current status updates on major port environmental programs.

The port has begun regular monthly “open door” meetings, in which community members can get updates as needed from port staff about environmental programs. The next monthly “open door” meeting is set for 1:30 p.m. Nov. 18 at the port’s Environmental Management Division 9th floor offices at Pacific Place, 222 West Sixth St., San Pedro.

Cruise Industry Details Environmental Efforts

By Mark Edward Nero

The Cruise Lines International Association has released its 2016 Environment Sustainability Report, which details the state of the industry’s environmental initiatives and what it says is its ongoing commitment to sustainable voyaging. The report, released Aug. 10, outlines cruise lines’ continuing efforts to collaborate with environmental stakeholders, develop new technologies and engage the maritime sector in best environmental practices and policies.

Highlights from the report include:

• Some cruise ships recycle or repurpose nearly 100 percent of the waste generated on board — by reducing, reusing, donating, recycling and converting waste into energy.

• Cruise ship waste management professionals recycle 60 percent more waste per person than the average person recycles on shore each day.

• Cruise ships utilize ecological, non-toxic coatings on ship hulls to reduce fuel consumption by as much as 5 percent.

• The cruise industry has pioneered advanced wastewater treatment systems that can produce cleaner water than the wastewater systems of most coastal cities in the United States.

• Cruise line association members have invested over $1 billion in advanced emissions technologies and alternative fuels.

The full 2016 Environmental Sustainability Report can be viewed at http://cruising.org/docs/default-source/research/clia_2016_envsust_8-5x11_8-8.pdf?sfvrsn=0.

LA Port Subject of New Children’s Book

The Port of Los Angeles’ environmental programs and green technologies are the focus of a new children’s book, “A Cleaner Port. A Brighter Future. The Greening of the Port of Los Angeles.”

The book, written by Robyn C. Friend and Judith Love Cohen, is the sixth in a series of environmental children’s books dedicated to teaching youth about the importance of environmental conservation and preservation. It provides elementary school-aged readers an easy-to-follow story about ports and their purposes.

In the book, the authors explain how the Port of Los Angeles is using cleaner, greener ways to move cargo. Readers can learn about the Port of Los Angeles’ environmental efforts – from cleaner trucks to shoreside power for idling ships to trash skimmer boats – and how those efforts help reduce air and water pollution.

The book features colorful, original illustrations, lesson plans, fun facts and a glossary of environmental and port terms.

“It’s never too early to start educating children about the importance of preserving the environment,” port Executive Director Geraldine Knatz said. “Our story is an example of how industrial operations can transform in the modern era.”

The authors and illustrator David Katz will be on hand for an open-to-the-public book signing at Williams Bookstore in San Pedro from 5 pm to 8 pm Thurs., Feb. 7.

“A Cleaner Port. A Brighter Future. The Greening of the Port of Los Angeles.” is available for purchase through Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com, and the port is also donating copies to local schools and libraries.

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.

October 2009 Fidley Watch: From the Publisher

Engagement 

Foss Maritime Company Vice President of Harbor Services Dave Hill opened our inaugural GreenPacific Conference by extolling all attendees to act as individuals, privately and publicly, to ensure that their companies act in an environmentally responsible manner. “Cargo will continue to move in and out of West Coast ports”, said Hill. “As those responsible for the physical movement of that cargo, it’s up to each one of us to determine how most responsibly to move it.”

From Hill’s opening comments, collaborative engagement developed as the theme for GreenPacific 2009, produced by Pacific Maritime Magazine in partnership with Foss Maritime Company. We need to work together as an industry to move that cargo responsibly.

State Lands Commission Marine Facilities Chief Gary Gregory first articulated the concept early during the first session: “Engage industry at the outset and they will solve the problem.”

Throughout the day, 100 conference attendees from industry, port agencies and engineering firms discussed the importance of engaging the entire spectrum of stakeholder groups when developing environmental policy, legislation …and regulatory application.

Western Petroleum Association’s Bob Poole and Herbert Engineering Chairman Keith Michel both commented on the misperception among many that the maritime industry is largely unregulated. “We’re among the most regulated industries in the nation,” said Michel, before embarking on a dizzying summary of the regulations affecting just the vessel owner.

Richard Cameron from the Port of Long Beach and Wayne Grotheer from the Port of Seattle gave an overview of their respective ports’ philosophy on responsible environmental stewardship, and discussed how they engage with regulators on behalf of industry when and where they can. The uniquely sensitive position in which public ports find themselves during regulatory review processes was not lost on the industry members in attendance. Environmental special interest groups are particularly adept at forcing public agencies to hear public comment ad nauseam, delaying and obfuscating what should be a much simpler and more straightforward attempt at balancing economic, community and environmental concerns fairly and equitably.

BNSF’s LaDonna DiCamillo and Aston+Bird’s Sharon Rubalcava described in detail the environmental review process and the difficulty of advancing responsible development in the current regulatory environment. The California State Lands Commission seemed the most collaborative of the regulatory agencies involved in the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) process. Ironically, the California State Lands Commission was also the only regulatory agency in attendance at GreenPacific 2009.

The conference was universally appreciated by those in attendance, but exit surveys revealed a common theme: Where were the regulators and environmental groups? Though we made a concerted effort to engage regulators and the environmental community our offers were declined. It was impressive that almost one hundred members of the maritime industry’s private sector responded actively to our GreenPacific initiative. It was disappointing that the regulatory community did not. We’ll continue our efforts to engage them in the conversation.

Peter Philips, Publisher