AWO To Newsom: Repeal Harbor Craft Regs
The American Waterways Operators’ president and CEO, Jennifer Carpenter, released an open letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom on January 30, urging him to withdraw requests to the California Air Resources Board to enforce a requirement on commercial harbor craft (CHC) to install diesel particulate filters (DPFs)—a rule the industry says is technically unachievable and which the Coast Guard refuses to enforce.
On January 10, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published its decision to partially grant CARB’s request to enforce its 2022 amendments to the CHC rule requiring the installation of DPFs, among other requirements, on board vessels, even though no such technology certified as suitable for marine vessels currently exists.
On January 13, Newsom withdrew requests to CARB to enforce new emission rules on trucks and railroads, but he neglected to include harbor craft.
“[T]his decision to withdraw emissions rules with the exception of those for the maritime industry places vessel operators at a competitive disadvantage–one that will cripple California’s marine sector and economy and threaten both mariner safety and the environment,” Carpenter wrote.
She added, “DPFs have a history of catching fire on trucks because of their extremely high temperatures. If such an event were to occur, vessel crews must flee overboard. These regulations will inhibit adherence to federal safety standards and put mariner lives and the environment at risk, with no benefit to air quality as truck and rail emissions will only offset any small gains made by the comparably low-emissions maritime sector.”
Retrofitting vessels with DPFs would be an expensive endeavor, and only five shipyards in California are capable of installing them, Carpenter said.
There is a procedure for vessel owners to appeal to CARB for a waiver, but the process is time-consuming and expensive. Owners must perform and submit engineering analyses to prove to CARB that every commercially available technology is incompatible with their vessels. Even then, there is no guarantee that CARB will approve an extension request.
“This process places the burdens of cost, proof and uncertainty on the vessel owner when the technologies, though required, are not certified for marine use,” Carpenter said.
The CHC rule appears already to be affecting California’s supply chain, Carpenter said.
“A recent survey by the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association found that there has already been an exodus of harbor craft since the regulations were adopted,” Carpenter said, “resulting in a lack of ship-assist tugboats necessary to keep deep-draft vessels operating safely and efficiently and threatening cascading problems for California’s supply chain.”
