Public Utilities Commission and Port of San Francisco form partnership to provide clean electric power to docked cruise ships

By Angela Hokanson, Bay City News Service

July 12, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - San Francisco will become the first California city to provide clean, city-generated, renewable power to docked cruise ships under a new partnership between the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the Port of San Francisco and the cruise ship industry, the SFPUC announced Tuesday.

Clean, hydro-electric power will be available from 2008 to cruise ships docked at terminals currently under construction at piers 30-32 in San Francisco, facilitating a reduction in diesel fuel emissions by docked cruise vessels, the SFPUC reported.

Cruise ships that use diesel-powered generators while docked emit toxins and particulates into the air, according to the SFPUC.

The partnership to provide cleaner power is designed to reduce the emission of diesel fuel from cruise ships docked in the city by up to 80 percent.

The shoreside electric power will be generated by the Hetch Hetchy water system and the SFPUC's solar and renewable energy projects.

"San Francisco is leading California by example and setting the standard for green development nationwide with this historic partnership to replace toxic diesel emission with clean energy at the new cruise ship terminal," Susan Leal, general manager of the SFPUC, said in a statement.

"The harmful effects of diesel emissions are well-documented and this plan helps protect our environment, our public health and our economy," Leal said. Tom Dow, vice president of public affairs for the Carnival Corporation, welcomed the plan.

"The shoreline power plan will be a win for the environment, Bay Area residents, the cruise ship industry and our customers," Dow said in a statement.

The use of shoreside power is in line with statewide and local programs calling for increasing regulation of air quality at ports in California, according to the SFPUC.

The port clean power agreement will also help San Francisco abide by a resolution passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2002 that commits the city to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent below 1990 emission levels by 2012, the SFPUC reported.

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