When it comes to air pollution, there's oil and there's oil. And then there is bunker fuel, the dirty, tarlike oil that ocean- going ships burn.
Emissions from bunker fuel are a major source of the soot- like particles that aggravate respiratory diseases and cause cancer. An estimated 600 Californians die prematurely every year from breathing pollution emitted by dirty ships. But for years, the shipping industry has successfully resisted international efforts to force them to reduce pollution.
Now California's Air Resources Board has acted boldly on its own. Last week, the ARB unanimously adopted regulations that will force oceangoing vessels operating within 24 nautical miles of California's coast to replace bunker fuel with cleaner low-sulfur diesel. The rule will apply to some 2,000 ships that dock in California ports every year, including the Port of Sacramento. Ship owners who violate the rule would face fines of $44,500 for a first offense and up to $227,500 for repeat violations.
The shipping industry argues that California doesn't have the authority to impose environmental rules on foreign-flagged ships, that the rules violate both international law and the U.S. Constitution. Industry officials point out that federal courts threw out an earlier ARB regulation that forced ships docked at California ports to reduce emissions from their auxiliary engines.
But the invalidated emission rule required California to get approval from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The newly adopted fuel rule does not. Under the federal Clean Air Act, California has authority to set more protective fuel standards than the federal government.
It's estimated that the cleaner fuel will cost the typical cargo ship making one trip across the Pacific to California $30,000, adding approximately 1 percent to the cost of the voyage. So be it. The ARB calculates that California will save $20 for every extra dollar spent on cleaner fuel.
Shipping industry officials don't dispute the benefits of the California rule. It's "the right thing to do," one official conceded. "The question is, who should be telling us to do it?"
The answer to that is clear – the government agency with the legal authority and the courage to act to protect public health. For now, both in the United States and across the world, that's the California Air Resources Board.
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