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Commissioner Dan Malcolm said he supported the 2030 benchmark but expressed concern about requiring the mid-term target. He cast the lone vote against the plan, with Commissioner Garry Bonelli absent. “This is a very serious thing we’re talking about right now,” Malcolm said at the meeting. “I think it will have a very profound chilling effect on industry. We all want clean air, but we have to do it realistically.” The Maritime Clean Air Strategy also called for transitioning diesel cargo-handling equipment, such as cranes, drayage trucks and forklifts to zero-emission technology by 2030. The Port’s benchmark comes five years before a state mandate to phase out diesel engines for such equipment. The pledges only apply to the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal and the National City Marine Terminal. Independent shipyards, such as General Dynamics NASSCO, BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair and Continental Maritime, are drafting separate plans to cut emission with the San Diego Air Pollution Control District. Harbor craft such as tugboats are also subject to the Port’s newly adopted blueprint, which calls for slashing their diesel emissions in half by the end of the decade. While some of those reductions could come from hybrid vehicles, Crowley Shipping is expected to launch the country’s first all-electric tug in San Diego by 2023. Another major source of pollution comes from large cargo ships that unload containers using massive diesel-powered cranes. Dole Food Co. already plugs into the electrical grid when its ships are docked at the Port. The plan calls for adding more “shore power” at the National City terminal as well as the cruise ship terminals downtown by 2024. Diane Takvorian, executive director of the Environmental Health Coalition, said adopting the clean-air strategy will help the Port pull down tens of millions of dollars in state funding for electrification. “The time is now,” she said. “There’s never been more emphasis on funding for heavy-duty transition to zero-emission vehicles.”
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