Virginia’s idling incentive
Virginia will be offering incentives for lines to clean up
Virginia’s Green Operator (GO) programme has been extended to include incentives for vessels participating in its fuel switch or alternative power schemes at its terminals.
The first line to participate in the new plan is Maersk: it’s been given an incentive fund of $300,000 by the Virginia Port Authority (VPA) to subsidise the cost of purchasing ultra-low sulphur marine gas oil (MGO) for one year while its engines are idling during cargo operations at VPA-owned terminals, starting in February.
Half of the $300,000 incentive comes from the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) grant programme, while the other $150,000 is evenly split between Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and VPA.
However, there is room for more lines to come aboard, as CMAQ is to supply VPA an estimated $4m for its GO programme over the course of the next five years.
Further, the port authority is also offering a $500,000 per vessel incentive for vessels to gain the technology for a battery-powered energy management system to power its auxiliary engines.
The GO programme originally started on the other side of the quay, with support for local companies in replacing older, polluting short-haul trucks.
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