Bunker fuel is a toxic, asphalt-like substance that is causing air pollution and global warming, harming marine life, and damaging human health and the environment. I join with Friends of the Earth in calling on Congress to require the cruise and shipping industries to end their use of this dirty fuel and transition to cleaner alternatives.
On November 7, a container ship crashed into the San Francisco Bay Bridge and spilled an estimated 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel -- a tragedy of immense proportions that creates both immediate and long-term threats to marine life in and around the bay.
Today, Friends of the Earth is calling on Congress to ban the use of this dirty fuel forever. Will you join our call?
Bunker fuel literally comes from the bottom of the barrel. It is the asphalt-like gunk that's left over after crude oil is refined into gasoline for cars and is especially damaging when spilled in accidents.* Even when used as intended, though -- to power cruise and cargo ships -- it is extremely harmful. Indeed, a study released just last week found that more than 60,000 people died from shipping emissions in 2002, due in large part to the use of bunker fuel, which is more than 1,000 times dirtier than the highway diesel used by trucks and buses. Its reliance on this dirty fuel is also a key reason that the shipping industry is a major global warming polluter.
Friends of the Earth's Clean Vessels Campaign has been leading the fight against shipping pollution for years, at the local level, nationally, and in the international arena, and phasing out the use of bunker fuel has been one of our key aims. Now, this dirty fuel has led to a disaster in the San Francisco Bay. Let's ensure that this tragedy isn't repeated and phase out this dirty fuel forever.
Please sign our petition calling for an end to bunker fuel use today.
Danielle Fugere, Friends of the Earth (Our superb vessels campaign director, Teri Shore, is on a leave of absence working with FoE Australia on this important set of issues.)
*As Gerald Graham, an on-scene oil spill commander for the Canadian coast guard, told the San Francisco Chronicle, bunker fuel "is the nastiest stuff around. … It doesn't tend to break down very quickly. … It's cheap, and it's dirty. If the wind happens to blow it out into a channel or bay, it could spread, and then you could have miles of shoreline that could be affected."
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