Latest Emissions Inventory Shows Maritime Industry Making Progress Reducing Pollution

By Jordan Royer, Vice President, Pacific Merchant Shipping Association

At a time when there is a lot of bad news around the world, it was encouraging this month to get the results from the latest Puget Sound Emissions Inventory (PSEI) which compiles air emissions from the maritime industry in Puget Sound. Key findings from the PSEI reveal an 82 percent reduction in diesel particulate matter and a 10% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions from port and maritime sources throughout the greater Puget Sound area from 2005 – the first year an inventory was conducted. The full inventory can be found here.

As we all learned during the pandemic, supply chains are important, complex, and easily disrupted. And the same goes for other challenges we face, such as reducing environmental impacts on the air and water in our communities. The solutions to these impacts are multifaceted and must involve the entire supply chain as well as the government in order to avoid unintended consequences. The good news is that the industry, in partnership with state, local, federal, and international entities, has made great progress on reducing air emissions in the last two decades, with more advancements on the way.

In our community, the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association (PMSA) was one of the founding members of the Puget Sound Maritime Air Forum in 2005, along with the Ports of Seattle, Tacoma, and Everett, regional clean air agencies, the American Lung Association, and others . The goal of our efforts was to measure and track maritime emissions and start work to reduce harmful pollutants like sulfur, nitrous oxides, and diesel particulate matter. In the beginning, most of the emphasis was on human health and not climate change – although our emission inventories are some of the first in the world to measure CO2.

Flash forward to today, and multiple inventories later, after billions of dollars have been invested in infrastructure and new equipment by the ports, their marine terminal operator tenants and ocean carriers,  we are exceptionally proud of the progress that has been achieved.

PMSA member ocean carriers have committed to meeting the International Maritime Organizations (IMO) emissions target of being carbon neutral by 2050, and in many cases have set their own earlier targets. On the waterfront side, PMSA member marine terminal operators are participating in the carbon market in California to transition to zero and near-zero emission equipment on the docks. PMSA is also helping to develop Washington State’s Clean Fuels Standard (CFS) modeled after California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) to further reduce emissions in the Puget Sound.

But these kinds of programs and investments are expensive, non-revenue producing overhead, and they require economically viable and competitive ports with growing cargo volumes to underwrite them. The Northwest Seaport Alliance – a partnership between the Ports of Tacoma and Seattle – understands this. It is why they recently created an incentive program to make the Pacific Northwest Gateway more competitive for intermodal rail cargo. We applaud their efforts and hope they are successful, as it is only by growing our overall cargo volumes that we can secure the funding and financing necessary to continue to make these investments in the West Coast port infrastructure, equipment, and operations that will deliver the positive environmental and economic impacts that everyone desires.

The overwhelming consensus is that we need clean, competitive, efficient ports for our economy to be successful in Washington State.  In order to make this ambition a reality, the entire supply chain needs to be working together at all levels to ensure the best way to get there is reached with the fewest amount of market disruptions, least amount of costs, and avoiding unnecessary disruptions and inefficiency. But the latest inventory in Puget Sound is encouraging that with public-private partnership we are on the right track to reaching our common goals.