The California Air Resources Board (CARB) continues its efforts to expand the state’s existing Ocean-Going Vessels At-Berth Regulation to further reduce air emissions from ships docked in California. (See here for prior alert). CARB recently released draft modifications to the At-Berth Rulemaking Documents. The modifications would include:

• Allowing use of an Innovative Concepts (IC) provision as a compliance option. The IC provision would enable regulated entities to use potentially lower-cost options to achieve earlier or equivalent (or greater) emissions reductions in port communities versus reducing emissions directly at berth. The IC provision would also provide a pathway for regulated vessel fleets to continue using fleet averaging methods to comply with the proposed regulation.

• Expanding use of Vessel and Terminal Incident Events to new and expanding fleets to encourage new business at California ports.

• Providing additional operational flexibility: by extending the time a vessel has to connect to shore power or another CARB-approved emissions control strategy (CAECS) from one hour to two hours; by extending the timeframe for reporting deadlines; and by expanding the remediation fund to ports and third-party CAECS operators.

• Broadening the scope of the interim evaluation to include a review of public information provided to CARB, including terminal-specific engineering evaluations, logistical considerations, public engagement, and independent studies, to help inform the evaluation and implementation timeline.

• Accelerating implementation dates for roll-on / roll-off and tanker vessels to achieve earlier public health benefits.

The resolution and all other regulatory documents for this rulemaking are available online here.

You can read the full article on our EHS blog here.