Americas News
Reports: Port of L.A. Invests $5M in Shore Power Upgrades to CSCL Vessels, but Most No Longer Call at L.A.
Following a $5 million investment by Port of Los Angeles (Port of L.A.) to upgrade 17 of China Shipping Container Lines Co. Ltd.'s (CSCL's) vessels in order to utilise shore power while docking at the port in 2005, data shows that most of those vessels stopped traveling to Los Angeles in 2010, local media reports.
Alongside requirements that all ships docking at the port were required to plug into shore power, port records are said to show that, during 2010 to 2013, about 50 percent of the vessels left their engines running, with 88 percent having left their engines running in 2012 alone.
As Ship & Bunker previously reported, port officials are said to have admitted last fall that the China Shipping North America terminal, which along with the TraPac terminal handles one third of the port's container throughput, had failed to enforce shore power measures.
The port's investment in 2005 is said to have been part of a legal settlement that promised residents and environmentalists that strict environmental measures would be placed on CSCL after the groups brought forth legal action to prevent the expansion of the China Shipping terminal.
The settlement required that 30 percent of the vessels docked at the terminal connect to shore power that year, and 100 percent plug in by 2011 - prompting CSCL to demand the port assist the carrier meet the requirements.
However, once the 2009 global economic downturn struck, then-director of the port, Geraldine Knatz, allowed the company an exemption from the plug-in requirement, at which point, CSCL moved many of the upgraded ships to different routes.
The port's current executive director, Gene Seroka, commenting on the revelation that there was no requirement in port's agreement with CSCL for how long the company's upgraded vessels must remain on routes calling at the Port of L.A., said "I would have done it differently and put the mitigation measures in the lease."
Despite this, Seroka says the investment was not a waste, as it demonstrated shore power as a viable option and informed the State of California's 2014 regulation requiring 50 percent of cargo vessels plug into shore power when at the state's ports.
CSCL is reported to have not provided comment on the matter.
In February, addressing the findings of an audit that found that L.A.'s TraPac terminal had failed to meet a number of the city's air quality improvement measures, including failing to ensure that cargo vessels plug into shore power while docked, Seroka said that the port has met its pollution reduction targets nine years ahead of schedule.
