Emissions reduced while container volume reached an all-time high.
The Port of Los Angeles says it has met goals to reduce air pollution ahead of schedule even as cargo volumes reached an all-time high of 9.3 million TEUs last year.
“Emissions of nitrogen oxides, a key component of smog, are down an unprecedented 60 percent compared to 2005 emissions levels,” the port said.
Releasing a 2017 inventory of air emissions on Thursday, the port said it shows it “has maintained or exceeded the dramatic clean air progress it has made over the last 12 years and has now met all of its 2023 Clean Air Action Plan goals.”
Diesel particulate matter (DPM) remains down 87 percent, and sulfur oxides remain down 98 percent.
“To reduce emissions while also significantly increasing cargo volumes, the port had to reduce the average amount of emissions it generates to move each container,” the port said. “Using this type of measurement, the port also posted its best year ever, lowering the average amount of emissions the port generates to move each container of cargo for all eight pollutants tracked by the port’s emissions inventory, including greenhouse gases (GHG), which were down 30 percent per container on average since 2005.”
The port said larger containerships played a key role in preserving the port’s clean air gains. Containership calls were down 22 percent, while the average number of TEUs per vessel increased 60 percent since 2005. Fewer ship calls also led to fewer trips by harbor craft.
The port noted the largest ships tend to be newbuilds with cleaner engines. In addition, the port has required more ships to “cold iron” — turn off their engines and plug into the onshore electric grid when docked. Ships that cannot plug in increasingly used alternative technology to capture emissions at berth.
Under rules from the International Maritime Organization that established emissions control areas, since 2017 ships within 200 nautical miles of the U.S. coastline must burn cleaner fuel with a maximum sulfur content of 0.1 percent, and more ships are reducing fuel consumption by slowing down within 40 nautical miles of the port.
The port said turnover of older trucks and upgrades to cargo-handling equipment also have “helped hold the line on emissions. More than half of nearly 17,000 drayage trucks calling at the port in 2017 have 2010 model year or newer engines. Nearly 47 percent of cargo handling equipment — including cranes, tractors and forklifts — have Tier 4 or equivalent diesel engines, the cleanest diesel emission technology on the market.”
Chris Cannon, the port’s director of environmental management, said, “The percentage of cargo-handling equipment using the cleanest available diesel technology has nearly doubled since 2016.”
Port of Los Angeles cuts pollution
