As New York’s elected officials work to make the city more eco-friendly, City Comptroller Scott Stringer has drawn attention to a major source of air pollution: diesel emissions from cruise ships.
On February 21, Stringer called for the Economic Development Corporation (EDC), which oversees the operation of the Red Hook and Hell’s Kitchen cruise terminals to find a way for cruise ships to take electric power from the city’s grid instead of running their engines while docked.
“While cruise ships bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to New York City’s ports each year, these same ships are also responsible for spewing toxic, asthma-inducing exhaust fumes into neighborhoods that are already burdened with some of the city’s poorest air quality,” he said in a press release.
“I stand with New Yorkers who live in Hell’s Kitchen and Red Hook who have had to suffer the impact of this suffocating, poisonous pollution for too long. The infrastructure we build today directly affects our climate goals for the future, and we need a plan to mitigate the excessive and easily reducible cruise ship pollution at both the Manhattan and Brooklyn terminals. For the sake of our city, our planet, and our neighborhoods, this has to change.”
An EDC spokesperson told this reporter that making cruise ships that come to New York more environmentally friendly was “a priority for our organization,” but suggested that electricity is not the only viable alternative to diesel.
“While we acknowledge that shore power is one way to reduce emissions, there are a number of additional fuel sources and techniques gaining popularity within the industry,” the spokesperson said. “We will soon be kicking off a planning study to examine the feasibility of fully implementing and expanding shore power connections at our terminals and look forward to sharing the results with the public.”
City Councilmember Carlos Menchaca (D-ed Hoook, Sunset Park), whose district includes a cruise ship terminal, welcomed Stringer’s effort, citing a bill he introduced in 2018 that would have mandated the use of shore power to fuel docked cruise ships.“Talk is cheap. We need action – and fast – to have any chance of stopping or slowing down climate change,” he told KCP.
“A good step is requiring these massive ships docked at NYC ports to use shore power instead of sitting idly by and burning fossil fuels. Yet every day they sit there and pollute our air, our waterfront communities, like Red Hook in my district, have a reason to mock our City’s claims of wanting to lead the fight against climate change.”
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Manhattan), whose district includes Hell’s Kitchen, declined to comment.
