N.Y.-N.J. Port Authority funds clean air initiatives

N.Y.-N.J. Port Authority funds clean air initiatives    Port Authority of New York and New Jersey commissioners authorized two clean air initiatives on Thursday.
   The first will encourage the use of low-sulfur fuel by oceangoing ships when they are within 20 nautical miles of the port. Operators would be required to switch to low-sulfur fuel when they get within 20 miles of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, and the port will fund up to half the difference in cost between high-sulfur fuel and low-sulfur fuel that they use in that area. Vessel operators will absorb the other half of the cost differential. The vessels also must agree to travel no faster than 10 knots when they are within 20 nautical miles of the harbor entrance.
   The agency plans to fund the program though 2012. By then it is anticipated that the International Maritime Organization will designate North American coastal waters as an Emissions Control Area, imposing stringent limits on the sulfur content of fuel used by vessels operating within 200 nautical miles of U.S. coasts.
   Another program will reimburse participating port tenants for 20 percent of the cost of replacing existing cargo handling equipment with new equipment that meets federal on-road air-emission standards as applicable, or the most recent federal off-road emissions standards. The tenant will be responsible for the remaining 80 percent of the cost. The port expects about 125 pieces of cargo-handling equipment to be replaced through the program.
   The board authorized $6.36 million for the oceangoing vessel fuel program and $2.24 million to help upgrade cargo-handling equipment.