This article is New York Legislation May Impact Cruises. It is about a legislation proposed in New York City that would require cruise ships to use shore power while in the New York Ports.
New York
There is something special about sailing from New York City. It is getting to go under a bridge on the ship as well as sailing near the famous New York landmarks that bring excitement.
The Big Apple is a magical place.
I got to attend a naming ceremony on MSC Seascape from the Manhattan Cruise Terminal which was a lot of fun. You can read about that here.
The city may soon make it difficult for cruise ships to visit the port though with new legislation aimed at cutting back carbon emissions.
Carbon
Most cruise ships use diesel fuel which emits a lot of carbon from the ships. Modern ships clean the exhaust to reduce it to water vaper, but there is still a lot of concern about the emissions.
Some newer ships use cleaner fuels such as Liquified Natural Gas (LNG), however, those ships still emit gasses from the burning of the fuel.
New York issues a bill to combat the pollution from ships here.
Shore Power
Some cruise ships have the capability of plugging into the city’s power grid rather than burning fuel while in port. This is called Shore Power.
While many newer ships have this capability, it is not frequently used.
Many ports, including the Manhattan cruise port does not actually have the ability to offer shore power.
Since the port does not have the capability, this bill is surprising since the Manhattan port is the largest of the New York ports.
Brooklyn Port has the ability to use it but not the larger port in the city.
The city has plans to add shore power to the Manhattan cruise port by the end of 2024.
Cruise Lines
Many cruise ships that can use shore power, actually do not since the cost is significantly more expensive than using the engines on the ship. You can read about that here from Cruise Hive.
In addition, the power is often coming from carbon based power sources, so connecting to shore power really does not reduce emissions into the environment unfortunately.
If the law passes, that would prevent many ships from visiting New York.
NYC
New York is a great place to visit and cruise from. Hopefully the bill will be modified or changed so that it will not cause ships to avoid the Big Apple.
Have you sailed from NYC?