Big ships will soon have to comply with clean air regulations. TheGreat Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports… until now theships have gone unregulated:
Transcript
Big ships will soon have to comply with clean air regulations. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports… until now the ships have
gone unregulated.
Some of the big ships that tie up in Great Lakes ports burn some of the
dirtiest fuel on the globe. It’s high in sulfur and soot. A group called
the Bluewater Network sued the Environmental Protection Agency, saying the
EPA should enforce the nation’s clean air laws on ships that dock in the
U.S. The EPA agreed that U.S. flag ships need to comply. But it’s
struggling with whether it can enforce restrictions on ships flying foreign
flags in U.S. waters. Russel Long is the executive director of Bluewater
Network.
“Ultimately I think they’re going to have to reduce pollutions from
every single vessel that’s plying the great lakes waterways as well as all
the coastal areas in addition.”
The EPA estimates large ships in U.S. waters belch 273-thousand tons of
pollutants each year.
For the GLRC, this is Lester Graham.