Emission Control Area and Ship Fuel in the News

The Environmental Protection Agency's new requirement for sulfur content in maritime fuels is coming into force on August 1.

Hawaii News Now report with video here. 

Per the EPA, the "Emission Control Area" for North America will go into effect on August 1, 2012:

On March 26, 2010, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) amended the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) designating specific portions of U.S., Canadian and French waters as an Emission Control Area (ECA). The proposal for ECA designation was introduced by the U.S. and Canada, reflecting common interests, shared geography and interrelated economies. In July 2009, France joined as a co-proposer on behalf of its island territories of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, which form an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland. Allowing for the lead time associated with the IMO process, the North American ECA will become enforceable in August 2012.

Ships are significant contributors to the U.S. and Canadian mobile-source emission inventories, though most are flagged or registered elsewhere. Ships complying with ECA standards will reduce their emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), and fine particulate matter (PM2.5). In 2020, emissions from these ships operating in the ECA are expected to be reduced annually by 320,000 tons for NOx, 90,000 tons for PM2.5, and 920,000 tons for SOx, which is 23 percent, 74 percent, and 86 percent, respectively, below predicted levels in 2020 absent the ECA. The overall cost of the North American ECA is estimated at $3.2 billion in 2020, while its benefits are expected to include preventing as many as 14,000 premature deaths and relieving respiratory symptoms for nearly five million people each year in the U.S. and Canada. The monetized health-related benefits are estimated to be as much as $110 billion in the U.S. in 2020.

The area of the North American ECA includes waters adjacent to the Pacific coast, the Atlantic/Gulf coast and the eight main Hawaiian Islands. It extends up to 200 nautical miles from coasts of the United States, Canada and the French territories, except that it does not extend into marine areas subject to the sovereignty or jurisdiction of other States.