PANYNJ’s delivers clean port agenda

Writing an editorial for the North Jersey Media Group, Kevin O’Toole and Rick Cotton – chairman and executive director of PANYNJ respectively – have outlined the port-related plans for “a cleaner environmental future”.

Mr O’Toole and Mr Cotton said that the authority intends to support the development of offshore wind in the states of New York and New Jersey and will put out a Request for Expressions of Interest for operators of offshore wind support facilities on port authority land in both states.

It will also initiate a pilot programme at New Jersey’s Port Elizabeth, together with Maher Terminals, to introduce electric cargo-handling equipment, they added.

In the article, Mr O’Toole and Mr Cotton explained that the PANYNJ Board has agreed to partner with the World Ports Climate Action Program, a coalition of international ports working together on identification of best practices for port-specific greenhouse gas-reduction.

PANYNJ will also extend — for half a decade — a programme offering incentive payments to ships making voluntary engine, technology and fuel enhancements that decrease emissions beyond International Maritime Organization-set standards.

The chairman and the executive director wrote that the authority will keep investing in the infrastructure of its region, including deepening its port.

“From bridges, tunnels and airports to ports and the Port Authority Trans-Hudson system, our mandate has always been to efficiently move people and goods,” Mr O’Toole and Mr Cotton wrote in the article.

“That is our history. That is also our future.”