Green Groups Sue EPA Over Ship Pollution

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has failed to meet a federal deadline for regulating pollution from large cargo and cruise ships, a network of environmental groups charged in a lawsuit filed today.

Friends of the Earth, an organization of green groups around the globe, filed the lawsuit in response to the EPA's recent decision to postpone its setting of new emissions standards for ship engines. Under a Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in a previous lawsuit by Bluewater Network (now a part of Friends of the Earth), the EPA was to have established such emissions standards by April 2007.

Instead, the EPA announced this April that it was extending its deadline for new marine engine emissions standard to Dec. 17, 2009.

Large ships, which currently transport 90 percent of the world's consumer goods, burn what is known as bunker fuel, a petroleum-based fuel that environmentalists say is 1,000 times dirtier than the diesel used by road trucks and buses. Shipping consumes about 300 million tons of bunker fuel each year, and shipping emissions in North America alone are expected to double over the next 10 years.

"Air quality in port cities like Seattle and Oakland takes a beating every time a large ship pulls into dock," said Teri Shore of Friends of the Earth in San Francisco. "The Bush EPA promised to act months ago to rein in ship smokestack pollution, but instead they have delayed regulations. Port communities are fed up and suffering, that's why we went to court today."

A single cargo or cruise ship can release as many emissions as 350,000 cars, according to Earthjustice, the environmental law firm representing Friends of the Earth in the suit. The firm called shipping pollution "one of the least addressed environmental justice issues facing port communities nationwide."

"In Los Angeles alone, the ships in port spew more pollution than the metro area's six million cars combined," said Sarah Burt of Earthjustice. "Residents of nearby neighborhoods have high rates of respiratory illness and the region's highest cancer risk. We're taking action today to fix this health hazard."

Earthjustice also criticized the EPA for failing to adequately regulate pollution from foreign-flagged ships, which account for more than 80 percent of the nation's large-ship port traffic. The EPA recently announced a proposal to begin setting new emissions limits for all ships operating in certain areas by 2011 or 2012. Negotiations with the International Maritime Organization over the proposed rules are expected to be completed sometime in 2008.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress is considering new legislation to require cleaner fuels in ships entering American ports. Sen. Barbara Boxer has introduced the Marine Vessel Emissions Act of 2007 (SB 1499) in the U.S. Senate, while Rep. Hilda L. Solis brought forward the same proposal (HB 2548) in the U.S. House of Representatives.Earthjustice, "EPA Sued Over Ship Smokestack Pollution." URL: (http://www.earthjustice.org/news/press/007/epa-sued-over-ship-smokestack-pollution.html)