Voluntary plan aimed at cutting emissions

Seattle Times staff and wire reports

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In Seattle, Princess Cruises plans to dramatically curb air pollution from its two biggest passenger ships by plugging them into the electrical grid rather than have them continue to idle while in port.

The announcements are part of an initiative sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency, air-pollution authorities and the states of California, Washington and Oregon. They're working with industry and hope to secure $100 million over five years for other projects to cut dangerous diesel exhaust.

"The goal is to replace the older engines with newer equipment, newer fuels, and get that done as soon as possible," said Wayne Nastri, EPA's administrator for the Pacific region. "It benefits all of us, those at the border and up and down the state."

The initiative targets sources of diesel pollution on the West Coast, from long-haul trucks to cargo ships pulling into port, locomotives, farm equipment and earth-moving construction machinery.

The initial projects include nearly $1.7 million to clean up idling long-haul trucks along Interstate 5 in Oregon and California.

In Seattle, Princess brought new cruise vessels on line and spent nearly $2 million to adapt them so they will no longer have to idle, spewing exhaust, for up to nine hours at a time between runs, said David Schaefer, spokesman for the Port of Seattle.

Instead, the cruise line will power down its turbine engines and hook up to shore power through Seattle's electrical grid. EPA will provide Seattle City Light with a grant to cover the cost of extending that power to the port.

It's hard to gauge precisely how much that will cut marine emissions in Puget Sound, Schaefer said, but reductions in terms of cruise-ship pollution should be dramatic.

"This year we've had seven ships ported here, but in terms of passengers, these two ships account for about one-third," he said.

Yesterday's announcement comes amid a growing awareness that the biggest marine vessels — particularly container and cargo ships — are large sources of dirty air emissions along the West Coast and in Puget Sound.
 
While the federal government has moved to reduce diesel emissions on equipment from farm combines to personal watercraft, many of those rules won't take effect for years. Meanwhile, the United States has declined to regulate emissions from the largest ships, and even the dirtiest of those vessels meet international standards.

The EPA estimates that if it can secure $100 million over the next five years, it can remove roughly 8,000 tons of particulate pollutants and save more than $2 billion in related health-care costs.

But some, such as Tom Murphy, with the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District, said voluntary measures alone won't do the trick. In his case, the agency worked with a shipping company for nearly a year to reduce emissions, only to have the company walk away.

Bonnie Holmes-Gen, a lobbyist for the American Lung Association in California, said the $100 million goal is promising but far short of what is needed.

"They should set the bar a lot higher," Holmes-Gen said. "We have a need for $2 (billion) to $3 billion over the next five to 10 years in California alone."

Craig Welch contributed to this report.