WITH MORE STRINGENT air emission
standards on the horizon, the
shipping industry is looking for
ways to improve its performance while
keeping its fleet active. Research and preparation
for the recent U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulation focused
on addressing air emission standards
on all U.S. coasts. However, the Great Lakes
region was added at the end of the process,
creating a stir throughout the system.
As presented, the regulation limits sulfur
emissions from ships within 200 nautical
miles of U.S. coasts, calling those
zones emission control areas (ECA). Because
of the size and configuration of the
system, it would essentially become an
ECA in its entirety, with bunker fuel not
allowed to be burned in Category 3 engines,
starting in 2012. The operation of
26 U.S.-flag lakers would be adversely impacted,
13 because steamships cannot safely
burn the higher-class fuel and 13 would
be endangered by significantly increased
fuel costs.
“The cost for intermediate fuel would
go up $1 per gallon,” said Glen Nekvasil,
Vice President-Corporate Communications
for Lake Carriers’ Association.
Prior to passing Congress, however,
wording was added at the crafting of Rep.
Dave Obey (D-Wis.) and Rep. James Oberstar
(D-Minn.) that will encourage passage
of the bill with the following three-part
compromise:
• Great Lakes steamships will be exempted
from the new regulations. The
steamships cannot burn low-sulfur fuel
without being at risk of an engine explosion.
• The final rule issued by the EPA will
include a waiver provision to address either
the inadequate supply of low-sulfur fuel or
the serious economic hardship caused by the increased cost of the fuel. Category 3
diesel ships could apply for the waiver.
• The EPA will evaluate the economic
impact for the final rule on Great Lakes carriers
and issue a report within six months.
“This compromise will allow EPA to go
ahead with a new clean air rule without
sinking the Great Lakes fleet—and all the jobs
it creates in the region,” said Obey, Chair
of the House Appropriations Committee,
which oversees the EPA budget. “The goals
of clean air and a strong economy are not
mutually exclusive. This deal allows economic
recovery to continue on Minnesota’s
Iron Range by ensuring that Great Lakes
shipping is not unfairly disadvantaged by
new EPA rules.”
The rider is anticipated to give U.S. and
Canadian shipowners time to plan for modifications
and renewal programs that will
introduce new engines and technologies,
similar to what has been done in the past for the automobile, rail and trucking industries.
“We appreciate the effort of the Great
Lakes Congressional delegation and Administration
officials who crafted a solution
that extends the useful lives of the 13 U.S.-
flag steamships to 2020, when the .5 percent
sulfur standard is implemented
worldwide,” Nekvasil said.
“It’s not a question of moving to cleaner
fuels. We plan to bring in new ships to
improve efficiencies and a better environmental
performance,” said Bruce Bowie,
President of the Canadian Shipowners Association
(CSA). “Air emissions from marine
transportation in the Great Lakes/St.
Lawrence waterway must be reduced in a
way that allows marine transportation to
remain competitive with other modes and
to continue to serve the public interest.”
Great Lakes vessels have a useful life of
40 to 50 years, or more. A solution that
forces older-technology ships out of service
in two to three years, or doubling the fuel
prices for more modern diesel ships could
have an opposite effect on a nationwide effort
to maximize the use of the nation’s marine
highways.
When EPA instituted emissions regulations
for the trucking industry, it was
given 10 years to phase in fuel standards. And, trucks have a much shorter lifespan—generally
about one-fifth-that of lakers.
According to the U.S. Maritime Administration,
expanding the use of the country’s
commercial waterways can help reduce
landside congestion, GHG emissions, energy
use and highway infrastructure dollars
spent on construction and maintenance. It
has calculated that congestion of the landbased
transportation system costs the U.S.
an estimated $200 billion a year and wastes
2.9 billion gallons of fuels because of time
spent idling.
Without adequate time to prepare for
the changing regulations, vessel owners
from both sides of the bi-national border
are concerned that the sudden increase
in maritime transportation costs
will cause shippers to choose more landbased
transportation options, which
would actually increase emissions similar
to when automobile buyers shifted
from regular-size cars equipped with catalytic
converters to large SUVs, which
had yet to implement the technology.
CSA studies indicate that, as a direct
result of a 15 percent modal shift due to
lost competitiveness and lost production,
greenhouse gas emissions associated
with CSA’s current traffic will
increase by more than 60 percent, NOx
will increase by more than 10 percent,
VOCs will increase by close to 30 percent
and CO by more than 70 percent.
Shipping associations from both countries
estimate that 10-20 percent of the
waterway’s cargo could be shifted from
ships to land-based modes if passed
without further thought and planning.
“The environment needs Great Lakes
shipping, too,” Nekvasil said. “Ships burn
less fuel and produce fewer emissions than
trains and trucks. The 13 vessels that currently
are powered with Category 3 diesel
engines using intermediate fuel hauled 29
million tons of cargo in 2008. It would take
1.1 million trucks or 290,000 railcars to replace
their carrying capacity. We all win
when we keep these cargoes on vessels
working the Great Lakes.”
“The adverse environmental impacts of
shifting marine traffic onto rail and already
overcrowded roads are so negatively staggering
that there is an obvious need for the
U.S. EPA to take a step back and do a full
and complete analysis prior to moving forward
with any rulemaking on marine
air emissions in the Great Lakes/St.
Lawrence,” Bowie said. “The effect of the
proposed rulemaking is so environmentally
negative that to do otherwise would
be indefensible.”
—Janenne Irene Pung