CARB adopted the restrictions in July 2009 for ships that cross the 24-mile threshold while bound for California ports.
A federal appeals court rejected a shipping industry challenge Monday to California’s offshore air pollution rules requiring vessels to use low-sulfur fuel within 24 miles of the coast, standards that the court said would save about 3,500 lives over six years while modestly increasing shipping costs.
The ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco is a milestone in California’s efforts to curb a significant source of hazardous emissions.
Low-grade bunker fuel from ships has a sulfur content more than 1,600 times as high as diesel fuel for trucks and exposes 80 percent of the state’s population to pollutants linked to cancer, respiratory ailments and heart disease, the court said.