Port of Los Angeles Opens Green Shipping Terminal
Date: 23-Jun-04
Country: USA
The Alternative Maritime Power (AMP) terminal boasts electrical technology used by U.S. Navy ships since World War II but long resisted by the shipping industry as too costly and time-consuming to implement, environmentalists said.
The system was officially unveiled this week at a berth leased by China Shipping Line, which agreed to retrofit 11 of its Los Angeles-bound ships for the new terminal.
Ships that use the port's electric power system instead of idling their diesel engines for days at dockside while cargo is unloaded will cut nitrogen oxide emissions by an amount equivalent to 69,000 diesel truck miles, port officials said.
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, among the world's largest ports, annually generate more than 4,000 tons of smog-forming air pollution - making them the largest source of air pollution in Southern California, environmentalists said.
Los Angeles city officials agreed to try the AMP system to settle a 2001 lawsuit brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Clean Air Coalition on behalf of residents of San Pedro, whose rates of respiratory illnesses and cancer are among the region's highest.
"We saw their case as a must-win situation. In the next two decades the port facilities are expected to triple," said Todd Campbell, policy director for the Coalition for Clean Air.
In a settlement approved by a Los Angeles judge last week, the city agreed to pay $20 million toward clean air initiatives at the port, $20 million for community beautification and $10 million toward other clean air efforts, Campbell said.
The settlement "won't be the thing that saves us down at the port but it's certainly a start," Campbell said. "We will continue to advocate for good progressive policies to make sure that as we're growing, we are cleaning up."