Despite extreme highs and lows in Port of Los Angeles cargo numbers last year, emissions declined in 2020 compared to 2019 — but just barely — though the outlook for 2021, a year marked by a supply chain logjam that’s kept freighters idling off the coast, is expected to be much worse, officials say.
The results for the 2020 emissions inventory, which the port published on Thursday, Oct. 21, were surprising, said Christopher Cannon, director of port Environmental Management.
The numbers “were slightly less in 2020 than in 2019,” he said. “Frankly, that was a surprise as we weren’t sure what to expect given the ups and downs of the last year (2020).”
The Port of Long Beach is expected to release its 2020 emissions report later this month, and officials there declined to comment Thursday on what the report will show.
The LA port’s 2021 emissions report, which won’t be released until early 2022, is expected to give a bleaker picture, reflecting the unrelenting cargo surge that has brought waves of ships to the San Pedro Bay. That, in turn, has fueled more truck, rail and cargo handling activity.
“We anticipate in 2021 a substantial increase,” Cannon said.
But 2020 — which saw a dramatic drop in port traffic through the first half of the year before rising dramatically — showed an overall decline in diesel particulate matter, down 1% from 2019 levels; nitrogen oxides was down 3% and sulfur oxides was down 1%.
In the third quarter of 2020, container volume surged and continued arriving in unprecedented numbers through the end of the year and into 2021.
“The tremendous drop in emissions during the first part of 2020 offset the increase at the end of the year,” Cannon said. “The cargo surge has continued well into this year so we expect to see an increase in emissions for calendar year 2021.”
Last year also saw the start of ships going to anchorage and awaiting berth assignments, sometimes for days. The problem has only worsened. On Wednesday, for example, there were 70 ships waiting to get into one of the ports.
The back up caused President Joe Biden to step in and urge the Port of LA to go to 24 hours operations.
But doing so could lead to even more trucks on the road, which may worsen emissions, even though the port said 40% of the trucks in the fleet are from 2014 or newer — making them more efficient than in the past.
Still, environmentalists have been raising concerns about the cargo congestion, and the state’s air quality watchdog has been keeping a close eye on the situation.
Among the concerns going forward is how 24/7 operations could impact pollution levels.
“Operational efficiency benefits both business and the environment,” Cannon said. “The heavy volume of inbound cargo has led to disruptions across the supply chain, and those impacts will be reflected in next year’s inventory.”
The annual emissions inventory measures the progress being made in cutting pollution from all sources — ships, trucks, locomotives, harbor craft and cargo handling equipment.
Comparisons are made with the previous year and with data from 2005, the inventory’s baseline year.
The latter comparison generally tends to be the most important, since port officials have also taken a long view on emissions.
From 2005 to 2020, the Port of LA saw its carbon dioxide emissions decrease 12% and its diesel particulate matter decline 89%. Nitrogen oxide dropped 64% and sulfur oxides declined 98%, according to the port’s emissions report.
All that despite total twenty-foot equivalent units — the universal cargo measurement — increasing 23% that time. It helps, though, that container ship arrivals decreased 35% from 2005 to 2020 as freighters have gotten larger.
The Port of LA is also leading or involved in 16 regional projects to demonstrate low-nitrogen oxide and zero-emission equipment, including trucks, yard tractors and forklifts. The emphasis is on zero-emission equipment.
Indeed, the Ports of LA and Long Beach are trying to have entirely zero-emission cargo handling equipment by 2030 and a zero-emissions truck fleet by 2035. And both ports are trying to push overall greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% by 2050.
“The technology that reduces particulate matter and nitrogen oxides can sometimes increase greenhouse gases,” Cannon said. “This makes our zero emissions demonstration projects all the more critical because they reduce both criteria pollutants and greenhouse gas levels.”
Cannon said further analysis of the 2020 data will be done in the coming weeks.
City News Service contributed to this report.