Petition targets ocean-going ships’ pollution

California Attorney General Jerry Brown, joining with national environmental groups, petitioned the Bush administration Wednesday to crack down on emissions from ocean-going vessels.

The petition opens a new front in the battle by California and other states to force the federal government to regulate greenhouse gases. Until now, the focus has been on emissions from cars, trucks, power plants and other U.S.-based industries. Regulating pollutants from ships is a challenge because more than 90 percent of vessels that bring goods to the U.S. fly foreign flags and fall under international jurisdiction.

“Climate change represents a potent catastrophe and an irreversible risk to California as well as to the rest of the world,” Brown said. “Who comes into American ports is a matter for Americans to decide.”

Ocean-going vessels account for an estimated 2.7 percent to 5 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases, roughly equivalent to the carbon dioxide emissions of all U.S. cars and trucks. And emissions from ships are likely to grow by 75 percent in the next two decades, according to studies by the German-based Institute of Atmospheric Physics.

The United Nations’ International Maritime Organization, which is charged with regulating ocean-going vessels, has discussed emissions for several years but has yet to adopt rules. It also has postponed proposals to control conventional pollutants, including particulates and ozone-forming gases that cause respiratory diseases and cancer.

The U.N. agency is hampered by opposition from Panama, Liberia and other nations that profit from registering ships, which environmentalists say makes U.S. intervention all the more urgent .

Also filing a petition are the nonprofit groups Friends of the Earth, Earthjustice, Center for Biological Diversity and Oceana.

“The global shipping industry is incredibly powerful,” said Michael Hirshfield, Oceana’s chief scientist. “They’ve been able to avoid doing anything about air pollution for years.”

Brown has vowed to file suit against the Bush administration if it fails to grant a waiver allowing California to regulate carbon dioxide from cars and trucks. And in the case of ships, he said, “I don’t believe the Bush administration can continue to thumb their noses at the laws of the U. S. There is a pattern here. The law is absolutely clear that the EPA has a responsibility to act.”

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