To curb air pollution, large tankers, container ships and cruise boats will have to use low-sulfur fuels when passing through U.S. and Canadian coastal waters, under a proposal adopted by a United Nations rulemaking body Friday.
Vessels traveling within 200 nautical miles of most of the two nations' coasts will have to cut their fuel sulfur content by 98 percent. The rules approved by the International Maritime Organization will be phased in from 2012 and new ships will have to use advanced pollution control technology starting in 2016.
"This is a change that will benefit millions of people and set in motion new innovations for the shipping industry," EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a statement.
Rich Kassel, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said, "Communities up and down the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf Coasts will feel the air quality improvements -- and the benefits will even extend hundreds of miles inland, reaching as far away as Nevada, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and the Grand Canyon."
While the cruise industry had opposed the plan for months, it did not object to the standards during Friday's vote in London, where the IMO is headquartered. Ramon Alvarez, a senior scientist with Environmental Defense Fund, said only a small number of ships have switched to the low-sulfur fuel voluntarily because it's twice as expensive.
More than 30 U.S. ports are in metropolitan areas that fail to meet federal air quality standards.
"It will mean higher operating costs, but we believe the tradeoff is to successfully address the problems U.S. port communities have faced," said Chris Koch, president of the World Shipping Council.
S. William Becker, executive director for the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, said the vote "demonstrates how effective the international community can be at solving a major health and environmental problem."
The United States and Canada jointly made the proposal a year ago.
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