The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach next month plan to start paying shipping companies to bring cargo to Southern California on cleaner-burning ships, part of an ongoing push by both ports to cut air pollution.
While the two harbors have the same goal, specifically reducing emissions of smog-causing nitrogen oxide, or NOx, the neighboring port authorities are taking slightly different approaches to the subsidies.
The L.A. port will be the first in the United States to sign up for the global Environmental Ship Index program, which gives ships a score based on their engine, the grade of fuel burned and whether they are capable of plugging into shoreside electric power. Incentives range from $250 to $5,250 per ship on each call, depending on a ship’s score. The same program, with varying levels of incentives, is already in use at several European ports.
Long Beach opted for a simpler program. It will pay $2,500 for a ship with a so-called Tier 2 engine – a cleaner-burning model found in the newest ships – and $6,000 for a Tier 3, an even cleaner type that won’t be available until 2016 at the earliest.
In either case, industry officials said the subsidies are likely too small to encourage shipping companies to invest in cleaner vessels or divert newer ships from other ports to Los Angeles and Long Beach.
“I don’t think anybody believes the incentives are adequate to change the deployment decisions,” said T.L. Garrett, a vice president of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, which represents shipping companies.
Indeed, even port officials acknowledge a subsidy of a few thousand dollars is negligible to companies that operate cargo vessels worth tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars.
But if the voluntary programs fail to bring cleaner ships and doesn’t help cut NOx emissions, ocean shippers could have to deal with tougher programs. That might include port fees for using dirty ships, terminal leases that include requirements for the use of cleaner ships, or new regulations from the South Coast Air Quality Management District or the state.
“The shipping companies know that if they don’t work with us to get us to our long-term air-quality goals, there are others right behind us, like AQMD, who are looking for ways to regulate,” said Christopher Patton, assistant direct of the L.A. port’s environmental management division. “I think they’ll want to avoid that.”
Working on the Railroad
A team of 65 workers from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. has started replacing concrete railroad ties along the company’s tracks between Los Angeles and Yorba Linda.
That’s 60,000 ties over three 30-mile stretches of track that help carry freight between local ports and the rest of the country. Ties have a lifespan of 10 to 15 years, and along this section they hadn’t been replaced in 15 years. Workers started replacing ties, working only at night, in mid-May and should be finished by the end of this month.
The work is part of $120 million of capital improvements BNSF is doing in California this year. It already finished work on another local project, installing automated gates at the Hobart rail yard in Commerce.
Railroad spokeswoman Lena Kent said the new gates should make it quicker for cargo trucks to get in and out of the yard. Trucks haul cargo containers from the ports to the rail yard, where containers are loaded on eastbound trains.
Airport Connection
Passengers waiting for Los Angeles International Airport flights now pay $10 for wireless Internet access from provider T-Mobile USA Inc. It’s the only way to get a Wi-Fi connection at LAX terminals.
But that could change this summer. T-Mobile is getting out of the Internet business and LAX officials are looking for a new provider to bring in a free Wi-Fi service.
The airport is in talks with Advanced Wireless Group LLC, a Miami firm that provides wireless Internet access at airports in Boston, San Francisco and Oakland, as well as at Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport.
The company offers free, lower-speed Wi-Fi access to users who watch a 30-second video advertisement. It also offers a faster, paid service, said Scott Phillips, president of Advanced Wireless. In Boston, 24 hours of access to the faster service costs $7.95.
The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners was set last month to approve a concession agreement with Advanced Wireless but the vote was delayed. Under that agreement, the company would pay Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that runs LAX, at least $663,000 over two years.
Phillips said he could not discuss the LAX deal because it is not yet finalized but noted Advanced Wireless typically pays airports a percentage of its revenue from ads and user fees.
Staff reporter James Rufus Koren can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 225.
