San Francisco — The $1.9 million clean-air grant awarded to the Port of San Francisco and Princess Cruises to install shoreside power for cruise ships calling on Pier 35 responded to the long-time concerns from environmentalists about cleaning up cruise ship air pollution.
Published: May, 2007
The grant was announced by Mayor Gavin Newsom last week.
This grant is a reward to all of us along the waterfront who worked for so long to make shorepower for cruise ships a reality in San Francisco, said Teri Shore, Campaign Director for the Clean Vessels Campaign of Friends of the Earth (formerly Bluewater Network) in San Francisco. We’ve come a long way. Today the port is poised to become the first in California to provide shoreside power for cruise ships.
The public monies will help fund portside power connections that will allow cruise ships to hook into the city’s electrical power grid instead of idling their large diesel engines while at the dock. Powering a ship’s on-board systems with the city’s clean hydropower and solar electricity reduces toxic emissions by more than 90 percent – compared to burning the high-sulfur bunker fuel routinely used in ship engines.
Once installed and operational, the Port estimates that the system will reduce 18 tons of ship air pollution per year based on usage by Princess Cruise ships, the only ships currently equipped to plug-in. Additional reductions are possible as more cruise lines retrofit their ships.
The grant was given by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District through the statewide Carl Moyer program, which generates proceeds from a portion of local fuel taxes to fund air pollution reduction projects. The port has a year to use the grant.
The proposal to install shorepower for cruise ships in San Francisco originated with Bluewater Network and city residents who were part of the Cruise Ship Terminal Environmental Advisory Committee. The advisory body was established by the port and city to develop environmental measures to protect the city’s air and water quality from cruise ship pollution after Bluewater challenged the plans for a new cruise ship terminal. When the new cruise ship terminal project was delayed, the focused shifted to the existing terminal at Pier 35.
Bluewater Network merged with Friends of the Earth in April 2005. The environmental organization works to stop environmental damage from vehicles and vessels, and to protect human health and the planet by reducing dependence on fossil fuels. It is the voice of the world’s largest network of environmental groups with one million supporters in 70 countries across five continents.
Source: Friends of the Earth
