EPA to regulate carbon emissions from US flagged ships

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced plans to regulate carbon emissions from US-flagged ships in 2011 under a rule-change adopted before Christmas by the agency, reports The Miami Herald.
The new Clean Air Act standards, which will tighten the restrictions on nitrogen oxide emissions, also provide for reductions in carbon emissions from large vessels. The new rule will make existing standards - in effect since 2004 - far more stringent, said the report.
"Port communities have identified diesel emissions as one of the greatest health threats facing people, especially children," said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.
Because the new rules apply only to US ships, the impact from these rules alone will be small, since 88 per cent of vessels calling at American ports are made by foreign-flagged vessels.
But together with Canada, the EPA plans a 200-mile coastal buffer zone in which all ships must burn cleaner fuels. The plan needs the approval of a United Nations agency that oversees shipping.
The US-Canada buffer received approval in principle in July from the International Maritime Organisation, and the UN agency is scheduled to hold a final vote in March.
More than 40 of America's ports are in metropolitan areas that fail federal air quality standards, said the report.

(Source: Transport Weekly)