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« An ounce of prevention is worth more than a granite countertop | Main | Praying for an end to cancer? »

Oil spill in the sky

It's been 9 months since the 901-foot container ship Cosco Busan hit the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and spilled 50,000 gallons of oil into the Bay. As you may recall, it wasn't just oil, but the tarlike sludge called bunker fuel. SF Bay suffered devastation whose effects will be around a long time – as we used to say in Greenpeace, you can't clean up an oil spill – but now the state of California has taken action against the harm to human health caused by bunker fuel every day – even when the ship doesn't crash.

Since bunker fuel is dirtier than oil, it burns dirtier – a lot dirtier. State scientists say 600 coastal Californians die every year from air pollution emitted by ships burning bunker fuel. So starting next year, ships coming within 24 nautical miles of our shores would have to burn low-sulfur diesel instead of bunker fuel. In the LA Times, Margo Jefferson reports that about 2,000 vessels would be affected each year, including container ships, oil tankers and cruise ships.

California "needs to act now," Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols said. "We've known for years that a large percentage of onshore pollution comes from activities in the water. Our ports need to expand and modernize, but the adjacent communities are not willing to tolerate the health risks."

The rules could save 3,600 lives in coastal communities over the first six years through reduced respiratory illnesses and heart disease, including a potential 80% drop in cancer risk associated with ship pollutants, according to regulators.

Nichols called the shipping regulation "the single most significant rule the Air Resources Board has adopted in the last five years."

Because prevailing winds blow from west to east in California, ship exhaust accounts for about a fifth of cancer-causing soot particles and half of the sulfur oxides over land.

The remainder is emitted by diesel-powered trucks, construction equipment, locomotives, industrial engines and agricultural pumps, which are all to be subject to stricter regulation as the state seeks to slash the emission of planet-warming greenhouse gases and other pollutants.

The air board estimates that the new shipping rules will save Californians at least $6 billion a year in health-related expenses and will cost the shipping industry between $140 million and $360 million a year.

A typical cargo ship would pay about $30,000 more in fuel costs for each visit, or about $6 per container shipped from Asia to California. That amounts to 0.1 cent per pair of sneakers, the board noted.

California's new rule is a reminder that oil is a scourge on the planet at every stage of its production – from the wells drilled in formerly pristine wilderness areas, to refinery emissions, to vehicle exhaust. This is a law to prevent an oil spill in the sky.

« An ounce of prevention is worth more than a granite countertop |