Oakland port gets nod for state ?cold-ironing? funds

Oakland port gets nod for state ôcold-ironingö funds California air regulators on Thursday recommended the Port of Oakland be granted $3.4 million from a state bond measure to help reduce diesel truck and ship pollution at the port.
   The funds, which come from the state's Proposition 1b infrastructure bond approved by voters last November, will be used by port officials to provide dockside electricity for vessels calling at two Oakland berths and add pollution filters to 75 trucks that call at the port.
   Nearly $2.5 million of the bond funds will also be used to upgrade five APL cargo ships so that they can plug into dockside power. Nearly half of the diesel pollution coming from calling ocean vessels occur while the vessel is at berth and running its auxiliary engines to provide maintenance power to the vessel. Tapping into the dockside power would allow the vessels to turn off their auxiliary engines while at the two modified berths.
   The funds would be granted by the state to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which would in turn pass the money along to the port.
   In September, the port, BAAQMD, Pacific Gas and Electric and APL completed a test program using clean-burning dockside generators to provide electricity to cargo vessels docked at the port. The proof-of-concept test, funded by $275,000 from the port, differed from conventional grid-based system by utilizing dockside liquefied natural gas-powered generators.