Reduced vessel arrivals and container volumes, coupled with cleaner cargo-handling equipment from rail to drayage, helped the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach significantly reduce emissions last year, but the environmental challenges are only mounting.

The combined ports’ 2023 emissions inventories released last week show reductions of 91% in diesel particulate matter (DPM), 72% for nitrogen oxides (NOx), 98% for sulfur oxides (SOx) and 20% for greenhouse gas (GHG) from a 2005 baseline. The ports in 2006 adopted their joint Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) to reduce harmful emissions from all port operations.

“These 2023 emission reductions are the most dramatic ever seen at our ports,” Jacqueline Moore, a vice president for the Pacific Merchants Shipping Association (PMSA), which represents carriers and terminal operators on the West Coast, said in a statement Friday.

Ocean carriers, marine terminals, truckers, railroads and harbor craft operators have been shifting to cleaner-burning fuels, including zero-emission vehicles and cargo-handling equipment, for nearly two decades in an effort to achieve the goals outlined in the CAAP. Those goals are to operate zero-emission marine terminals by 2030 and drayage trucks by 2035.

“Everyone is committed to those goals, but it will require the technology and [fuel] infrastructure to catch up,” PMSA Vice President Michele Grubbs told the Journal of Commerce Friday.

Layered regulatory impact

Port stakeholders must also comply with additional rules imposed by federal, state and regional regulators that in some cases exceed the CAAP targets. Those regulatory mandates, including independent source rules (ISRs) covering the ports, railroads and warehouse operators throughout Southern California, will add significant costs to operating the largest US port complex.

In a Sept. 17 letter to the mayors of Los Angeles and Long Beach, shippers, transportation interests and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union said they feared the ISRs would be so restrictive that they would force stakeholders to limit the volume of cargo moving through the port complex.

“There is broad agreement among the stakeholders that it would be more effective and productive to forego a Port ISR and instead focus on an infrastructure and streamlined permitting program to support current and future needs related to zero-emission infrastructure and equipment,” the letter said.

What’s more, the work needed to further reduce emissions will be even more challenging, according to Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles.

“We are down to the last 9% of diesel particulate matter and last 2% of sulfur oxides from anything with an engine that moves cargo through our gateway,” Seroka said in a statement accompanying the release of the ports’ emissions inventories. “While what remains of these and other pollutants are the toughest to eliminate, we continue to partner with all our stakeholders to drive emissions down to zero.”

In its report, Long Beach noted that carriers are operating fewer but larger vessels, which increases efficiency by generating more containers per vessel call. The average discharge per vessel call was 11,168 TEUs in 2023, up from 10,137 TEUs in 2022, according to the report.

In addition, more ships are sailing slower within 40 miles of the coast, and more vessels are plugging into shoreside electrical power while at berth, both of which reduce emissions.

Long Beach also noted that in the past year, each port has generated $30 million from the Clean Truck Fund that is being distributed in grants to drayage operators to purchase zero-emission trucks and also to develop charging infrastructure in the harbor. The funds are generated by a $10-per-TEU fee on laden containers drayed to and from the ports.

Source: This article is an original JOC publication.