Report: Port of L.A. let China Shipping skirt clean-air mandates

The Los Angeles port authority allegedly undercut an emissions-reduction agreement that was a condition for terminal expansion in order to help China Shipping ride out a tough financial period, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.    The Port of Los Angeles, under former director Geraldine Knatz, allowed China Shipping for several years to skirt emissions-reduction requirements tied to the expansion of its marine terminal, according to an investigative piece in the Los Angeles Times.
  The newspaper said Knatz agreed to ignore China Shipping’s environmental non-compliance to help the struggling carrier through the economic downturn in 2008 and 2009 and, in return, maintain it as a customer.
   Under a court-approved agreement with environmental and neighborhood groups in 2004 that allowed expansion to proceed to support greater cargo volume, 70 percent of China Shipping vessels were required to plug into electric power as an alternative to idling auxiliary diesel engines to power lighting, cooling, water and other systems while at berth. The company also did not reduce emissions produced by trucks and container-handling equipment as much as promised, and didn’t slow down the speed of vessels approaching the harbor to reduce fuel burn, the report said.
   New development at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach were frozen by lawsuits until they came up with plans to significantly reduce air pollution, which have had negative health consequences for those living in surrounding neighborhoods.
   China Shipping is now in the process of being merged under another state-owned shipping company, COSCO, at the direction of the Chinese government.
   Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka, a former carrier industry executive, told the paper he is committed to full compliance with environmental agreements, but so far the port authority has not been able to amend its lease with China Shipping to reinstitute the tougher standards.
   Knatz and former mayor Antonio Villaraigosa disagreed in the article about whether he approved of watering down the green measures China Shipping was required to take.
   China Shipping is now in compliance with the shore-side power requirement because a California law that went into effect in January 2014 requires 50 percent of container vessels to plug into electric substations during port visits. The L.A. Times said China Shipping is actually in compliance 98 percent of the time now.
   The need for the San Pedro Bay ports to be able to undertake expansion and modernization projects is underscored by the fact that they handle almost 40 percent of the nation’s trade in goods moving in containers and that carriers are rapidly transitioning to the use of ultra-large vessels that require larger berths, and more cranes, storage area, equipment and trucks to move the cargo in and out.
   That trend is evident in the recent announcement that CMA CGM, the world’s third largest container line, is deploying an 18,000-TEU vessel on its Pearl River Express Service between China and the U.S. West Coast.
   The CMA CGM Ben Franklin, which was delivered from a Chinese shipbuilder on Dec. 4, is scheduled to make its U.S. debut at the Port of Los Angeles on Dec. 26 and then call the Port of Oakland on Dec. 31. The French ocean carrier is making the trial run to test that the ports can berth the vessel and efficiently discharge cargo. 
   It will be the first time a vessel of this size has ever entered a U.S. port. So far, ocean carriers have used mega-size container vessels on Asia-Europe trade lanes and analysts did not expect them to be deployed on transpacific routes for a few more years. The twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach regularly receive vessels today in the 10,000-TEU to 13,000-TEU range, and have served a handful of 14,000-TEU vessels in the past.
   The Port of Los Angeles said the Ben Franklin will be docked at APM Terminal’s Pier 400 and that it is expected to return to the area in the spring with a call at the Port of Long Beach.