Stricter Emission Rules Raise Costs, Freight, Shipping Executives Say
By Sean McNally, Senior Reporter
This story appears in the April 9 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
ARLINGTON, Va. — A panel of freight industry executives said that diesel engine emission regulations were adding to operational costs, and the rules needed more consistency.
“In our industry, vessel air emissions are increasingly becoming a major issue,” said Chris Koch, president of the World Shipping Council.
Koch noted that cargo ships burn fuel that “tends to be very dirty, high-sulfur fuel” and often dock near large cities, making them an attractive target for air regulators.
Limitations on vessel emissions needed to be consistent, Koch said.
“We can’t have one [standard] for California and one for Seattle and one for Rotterdam. It’s going to require us to work with [the Environmental Protection Agency] and vessel engine manufacturers,” he said.
Koch said he was optimistic that they would find common ground, but he was concerned a “patchwork quilt of varying [global] requirements” could drive up costs.
On the day Koch made his comments to the National Industrial Transportation League’s spring policy forum, the House of Representatives passed legislation requiring EPA and the Coast Guard “to develop regulations that establish standards for the emissions of ozone-depleting substances and other pollutants, as well as standards for the quality of marine fuel oil that is used in U.S. waters,” according to a Transportation Committee release.
Ed Hamberger, president of the Association of American Railroads, also said there needed to be some uniformity in the rules at the local, state and federal levels.
He said, for example, Union Pacific and the California Air Resources Board recently had struck an agreement on emissions and idling, but the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which oversees the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, was seeking more stringent cuts.
Hamberger also said the rail industry could likely meet recent Environmental Protection Agency standards for locomotive emissions (3-12, p. 1) but that the group was concerned “that some of the out-years have too aggressive of a timetable.”
Meanwhile, Bill Graves, president of American Trucking Associations, said the trucking industry was in the middle of “a series of hurdles” and that the latest standards had increased carrier costs.
“They burn a little more fuel, they are not quite as fuel-efficient [and] they now require ultra-low-sulfur diesel, which is a more expensive fuel,” he said.
Looking ahead to the next set of regulations, Graves said that “there’s some speculation that urea and additives will be a necessary part of what we do in 2010, so that’s a whole build-out of infrastructure and additional additives in the fuel chain.”
Moreover, trucking is seeing an increase in varied anti-idling laws on the state and local levels, which also are driving up costs.
“Every time one of those regulations is advanced, it simply costs the industry more and, in turn, we just pass that cost through to shippers and, in turn, try to pass it through to consumers,” Graves said.
