Deal Reached on Shore Power for Cruise Terminal

New York finally catches up with Juneau, Alaska and will implement the provision of shore power for ships docked at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. Two years of negotiations and diligent attention to the issue by our elected officials and local activists have resulted in a deal in which the EDC and the New York Power Authority will subsidize a portion of the cost.

More detail about the agreement can be found in today's NY Times article.

Apparently the delays in reaching agreement centered around establishing a rate for the power and then figuring out who would pay for it. To put it into context, 28 cents per KWH is around 3 times the residential rate. The cruise ship operator will pay 12 cents and the balance will be picked up by the EDC and the NYPA. We find it hard to believe that so much time was wasted over figuring out who would pay for this. Using the numbers in the NY Times article, cruise ships are expected to visit the terminal about 40 times next year. If each ship has approximately 2,000 passengers (the capacity of the QM2 is 3,000) that works out to 80,000 passengers. If the cost of shore power is $1M over diesel, it represents an additional cost of $12.50 per passenger. Surely the cruise ship operators could pass this trivial amount along to their customers without compromising competitiveness.

The Columbia Waterfront neighborhood thanks Nydia Velazquez, Daniel Squadron, Brad Lander, their staffs and the other public officials who worked so hard to achieve what we hope is a successful first step toward establishing shore power throughout the ports of New York and New Jersey.

EDC Projected Increase in Cruise Ship Visits = More Pollution

The NYC Economic Development Corporation released a report last week indicating strong growth in the cruise ship industry. The report, which summarizes the results of an economic impact study, describes a significant increase in the number of ship visits between 2009 and 2010 and predicts up to 264 ship calls in 2011 involving as many as 645,000 passengers.

Besides foretelling an increase in pollution, these figures make it abundantly clear that providing shore power for visiting ships should be well within reach financially. Based on an article presented on the C40 Cities website, for cruise ships berthed in Seattle, which provides shore power, running cost per call was approximately $5,000. Granted, electric rates are lower in the Northwest. But, using these numbers, the projected 264 calls in NY would cost a total of $1.32M. That works out to about $2.05 per projected passenger. Even if the cost was 5x higher, it would total about $10 per passenger.

This is such a small amount of money that it is clear that there can be no reasonable objection to a surcharge to enable shore power. After all, no one has to take a cruise - but the residents of NYC have to live with the pollution.

Shore Power for Cruise Ships

Local resident Diana Schneider alerted us to this excellent posting in A View From the Hook about the effort to get shore power to cruise ships.

The topic was also addressed at last week's general meeting where Daniel Squadron and Brad Lander filled us in on their efforts to convince the PSC to set a 'standby' rate that the ship operator can live with. Word is that Carnival lines has agreed to pay a rate higher than that charged in other ports, but their offer is still lower than what was proposed.

We can let the PSC know that this is a critical issue to us. Write to them care of

Hon. Jaclyn A. Brilling
Secretary to the Commission
New York State Public Service Commission
Empire State Plaza Agency
Building 3
Albany, NY 12223-1350