Shipping Pollution: What Oceana Does
Working with Earthjustice, Friends of the Earth and the Center for Biological Diversity, Oceana petitioned the EPA to regulate shipping emissions in October 2007.
Unfortunately, since the EPA did not respond accordingly, in July 2008 Oceana, along with the coalition of environmental groups and attorneys general from various states, filed a letter warning the EPA of impeding litigation if it does not respond to the petition.
Oceana has the following recommendations to reduce global ship emissions:
– Shipping fleets should implement technical and operational measures to reduce global warming pollution immediately. Such measures include speed reductions, weather routing, fuel switching and specialized hull coatings.
– Fleets should begin to implement longer-term measures to reduce global warming pollution, such as fuel-efficient design of new ships and engines created specifically for slow steaming.
– The IMO should set international emission standards to reduce global warming pollutants from the shipping industry.
