Port of Houston Authority Wins First Place Gulf Guardian Award for Fuel-Switching Project

The Port of Houston Authority has won a first place 2011 Gulf Guardian Award for a far-reaching project to reduce emissions in the Gulf.

The Port Authority and its partners, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency/Office of International Affairs, the Mexican government, including the State of Veracruz, SEMARNAT (Mexico's Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources) and PEMEX (Mexico's state-owned petroleum company), Maersk Line and Hamburg Süd, won the award in the Bi-National category.

Established in 2000, the Gulf Guardian awards were developed by the EPA's Gulf of Mexico Program Partnership to recognize and honor the businesses, community groups, individuals and agencies that are taking positive steps to keep the Gulf healthy, beautiful and productive.

Aston Hinds, Senior Manager, Environmental Affairs, accepted the award on behalf of the Port Authority from EPA Regional Administrator Armendariz at a ceremony in New Orleans on August 3.

The Port of Houston Authority is committed to environmental stewardship, said Hinds. We are very pleased that our collaborative study is helping to restore the Gulf and has received recognition by the EPA through this award.

The Port Authority's air quality planning staff has worked with the EPA's Office of International Affairs since 2008 on a partnership project with ports in Brazil and Mexico to study the feasibility of fuel switching to lower sulfur diesel while transiting into the Port of Houston and those destination ports.

In March 2010, the International Maritime Organization officially designated waters off North American coasts (extending up to 200 nautical miles) as an Emission Control Area (ECA). In anticipation of the North American ECA start date on August 1, 2012, the Port Authority was approached by the EPA Office of International Affairs to participate in a project to study the feasibility of fuel switching and to measure the emission reductions from vessels switching to lower sulfur fuel.

The Port Authority brought Maersk Line and Hamburg Süd on as project partners and committed $13,400 to help pay for the cleaner fuel. A November 2009 Maersk Roubaix fuel switch in the Port of Houston and the Mexican port of Progreso used $5,000 of those funds, with the remaining $8,400 used for the Hamburg Süd vessel, the Cap San Lorenzo, to fuel switch in the ports of Veracruz, Altamira and Houston in April 2010 with an EPA research team onboard measuring emissions, showing improvement on port area air quality and sensitive reefs, (a 99 percent reduction of SO2 deposition), due to fuel switching within 24 nautical miles of the port. From ships alone, modeling showed a seven-fold reduction in SO2 concentrations.

Benefits also extended to the Port of Santos, Brazil, to utilize the remaining fuel. EPA-OIA's report, 'U.S.-Mexico Demonstration of Fuel Switching on Ocean Going Vessels in the Gulf of Mexico', was published in December 2010 and is available on the EPA Website at http://www.epa.gov/oia/fuelswitch.html.

As a result of this project, two DERA grants have been awarded to fund ongoing fuel-switching activities in the Gulf of Mexico at the Port Authority's two container terminals.

This is the fourth Gulf Guardian award that the Port Authority has won since 2000. These annual awards are given in seven different categories: Business, Civic/Non-Profit Organization, Partnerships, Youth/Education, Individual, Government, and Bi-National.

About the Port of Houston Authority

The Port of Houston Authority owns and operates the public facilities located along the Port of Houston, the 25-mile-long complex of diversified public and private facilities designed for handling general cargo, containers, grain and other dry bulk materials, project and heavy lift cargo, and other types of cargo. Each year, there are more than 7,700 vessel calls at the port, which ranks first in the U.S. in foreign waterborne tonnage and second in overall total tonnage. The port authority plays a vital role in ensuring navigational safety along the Houston Ship Channel, which has been instrumental in Houston's development as a center of international trade. The Barbours Cut Container Terminal and Central Maintenance Facility are the first of any U.S. port facilities to develop and implement an innovative Environmental Management System that meets the rigorous standards of ISO 14001. The second recertification of those facilities in 2009 included an extension for the state-of-the-art Bayport Container Terminal. The port authority is the first port authority in the world to receive ISO 28000:2007 certification for its port police and the perimeter security operations at both the Barbours Cut and Bayport Terminals. Additionally, the port is an approved delivery point for Coffee C futures contracts traded on the New York Board of Trade's Coffee, Sugar & Cocoa Exchange. For more information, please visit www.portofhouston.com

CONTACT: Lisa Ashley, Director, Corporate Communications

Office: (713) 670-2644

Cell: (832) 247-8179

Email: lashley@poha.com