Vessels Arriving at U.S. Ports to Face New Laws Mandating the Use of Cleaner Fuels

As an avid environmentalist, I thought it would be interesting to share what I learned about vessel emissions and upcoming changes to air pollution regulations to address the threat of increasingly toxic ports and worsening coastal conditions.

I attended this program which was led by Laurie Sands, Esq., of Wolff & Samson P.C., fellow member of the Maritime and Admiralty Law Committee at the New York County Lawyers Association.

Laurie explained that thanks to Annex VI of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), countries that are members of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) can choose to designate Emission Control Areas (ECA) in an effort to reduce the impact of air pollution on its coastal areas.

ECA designation means that countries have direct control to regulate nitrogen oxide (NOx) and sulfur oxide (SOx) air pollution emissions from vessels that come into its territorial waters and pull into its ports.

The U.S. and Canada made a joint application last year, which has been approved, and has a tentative effective date in August 2012.

Operation of the ECA (for the U.S.) means that vessels will have to switch from the lower grade fuel used for the long journey across the high seas to a cleaner fuel when 200 miles off of the territorial sea baseline in waters adjacent to the Pacific, Atlantic, Gulf Coast and Hawaiian Islands. I was curious to know if switching fuels via this pumping method that Laurie described might raise new water pollution issues, but it did not seem to be an area of concern (yet).

What was, and is, at issue however, are the increased costs of doing business on the part of the vessel operators and the parties that use them. Other issues such as adequate time to switch fuels, given the exigencies of trans-ocean carriage and delivery deadlines on shore, not to mention the potential need to purchase additional engines or equipment, were also causes for concern.

I inquired as to whether there had been any discussion regarding enforcement of the fuel change at the line of demarcation, as I know that US Customs together with the US Coast Guard conduct this type of activity (for other enforcement reasons) on vessels out on the territorial seas of the U.S. No one at the event had as yet heard of any such dialogue, however, it would not surprise me if it did become an enforcement activity as the ECA regulations develop more fully (which are likely to be promulgated under the Clean Air Act).

As for other ECA designated territories, the Baltic Sea and North Sea are the only others. While not an official ECA, the EU likewise has standards in place for reduced sulfur fuels at its ports.

Not surprisingly, California already has state regulations that require ships to change to cleaner fuels off the California coast - go Cali! (it’s my home state). I’ll be looking forward to developments as summer of 2012 approaches on this both interesting and important topic.

Questions/comments? Post below or email me at clark.deanna@gmail.com