Your Ports for People August Newsletter
Pacific Environment
We are a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting communities and wildlife of the Pacific Rim.
Welcome to the?Ports?for?People?monthly?newsletter, where we share campaign updates, highlight news and insights relevant to our work and feature a special story related to?ports and shipping.?This?newsletter?is brought to you by Pacific Environment.
Advocating?for?cleaner?ports?and rail yards
Pacific Environment, in tandem with member groups of T.H.E. Impact Project — a coalition of community-based organizations, lawyers and eNGOs — participated in a day of advocacy at a Long Beach City Council meeting. The group hand-delivered a petition of nearly 100 signatures and provided public comment urging Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson to strongly support the Rail and?Ports?Indirect Source Rules (ISR). These rules would set facility-wide emission reduction regulations, ensuring those responsible?for?fossil fuel emissions are held accountable. The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), which?formulated the rules, will vote on the railyard ISR on?Aug. 2.
In Long Beach, there is up to a?17-year difference in life expectancy?simply due to where residents live! Mayor Richardson promised to remedy this injustice by implementing environmental policies to ensure clean air, unpolluted water and toxic-free homes?for?all neighborhoods in Long Beach.?Ports?for?People?calls on Mayor Richardson to stick to these commitments by championing SCAQMD’s ISRs.
World’s first hydrogen-powered ferry launches
Pacific Environment was proud to be at the?first voyage?of the world’s first hydrogen-powered ferry. SWITCH Maritime’s?Sea Change?hydrogen ferry launched in San Francisco, California at an event attended by state and local air regulators, state government officials, advocates and industry representatives.?Sea Change’s?launch, which follows on the heels of last month’s debut of the?first all-electric tugboat in California, shows the technology is here?for?decarbonized harbor craft. With this technological readiness, we urge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to approve the California Air Resources Board’s waiver on the Commercial Harbor Craft Rule, which sets standards?for?reducing emissions from California’s commercial harbor craft.
Join us & act now!
?? Act now in California!
?? United States:?Call on President Biden?to sign an Executive Order to end ship and port pollution by signing our petition.?
?? We’re hiring!?We’re looking?for?an expert in government relations and climate issues, decarbonization or sustainability to lead Pacific Environment’s climate work in Singapore. The?Singapore Climate Specialist?will work in tandem with?Ports?for?People?and the broader Climate Campaign to end fossil fuel pollution from ships and accelerate the production of 100% zero-emission maritime technologies and fuels.
News + insights
?? Highlight:?How are we going to decarbonize shipping?
David Wooley and Ed Carr speak to the recommendations contained in their two recently-published studies outlining the?technologies?and?policy options?for?decarbonizing the shipping industry. The studies, commissioned by Pacific Environment, debrief fuel options and California’s pivotal role in leading the green transformation of the industry.
Shipping news
?? Port of Singapore sees?spike in demand?for green fuels
?? Canada providing?$1.7 million funding?for green shipping corridor projects
?? California?ferry operator AITF moves to electrify its fleet?in CARB-backed project
领英推荐
?? Maersk sets up?new offshore wind company
Environment + climate news
?? California finalizes?plan to develop offshore wind
?? The Supreme Court took powers away from federal regulators.?Do California rules offer a backstop?
???World’s largest sodium-ion battery?goes into operation
August Feature | Ferries!
Every year, ferries transport billions of passengers around the world. In the United States alone, ferries carried over?131 million passengers?in 2019. Ferry transportation plays an especially critical role in major U.S. cities like San Francisco, Seattle, New York City and Boston, to alleviate traffic congestion, enhance connectivity and aid in?urban development. Ferries also play a key role in emergency services, often filling in the gaps of service when other transportation networks are disrupted.
However, ferry systems in the U.S. and abroad cause major environmental and public health impacts. Most ferries run on heavy fuel oil, the cheapest, dirtiest and most deadly fossil fuel, containing asthma- and cancer-causing air pollutants including nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter.?Studies?highlight?concerning levels of pollutants onboard?ferries, affecting both passengers and coastal communities.
Luckily, the technology exists to eliminate communities’ and passengers' exposure to these pollutants. Initiatives like electrifying short-run ferries and deploying hydrogen-powered vessels —such as the world’s first hydrogen ferry,?Sea Change?— are capable of producing zero emissions. In conjunction with the development of new technologies, governments need to implement stricter regulations to accelerate the transition to greener maritime technology. The state of California has stood as a leader in these kinds of regulations, recently passing an updated version of their Commercial Harbor Craft Rule, which, among other stipulations, will require short-run ferries to be zero-emission capable by 2026. Singapore followed suit to?require that all new harbor craft?operating in the Port of Singapore will have to be fully electric, be capable of using B100 biofuel or be compatible with net zero fuels such as hydrogen, starting in 2030.
Thanks?for?reading!?
Fern Uennatornwaranggoon
Climate Campaign Director,?Ports
Pacific Environment