* From NOR SHIPPING 2013 (May 30, 2013) – “The new president of BIMCO, Mr. John Denholm, has identified environmental pressures facing the shipping industry as some of the most significant current challenges as he embarks upon his two year term. Speaking in Paris, as he took over the presidency of the shipping organization, Mr. Denholm said ‘environment’, with the many diverse changes it raises, will be the theme for his period in office, with emissions and ballast water issues high on his agenda for action.

“Mr. Denholm said the challenges currently being faced by the industry are ‘more difficult and more complex’ than those of the past. While an oversupply of tonnage may be nothing new, the consequences of this, he said, were overshadowed by owners buying energy-efficient designs which will undoubtedly delay the return to a more balanced market.

“The situation is not improved by the growing regulatory burden, which, he suggests, is driven by a ‘huge, politically-inspired agenda’ which would impose significant costs on the industry at a time when it could least afford them. Emphasizing that the shipping industry remained the most environmentally friendly mode of industrial transport, Mr. Denholm suggested that the pressures that the industry was under to reduce its impact on sea and air amounted to a ‘environmental siege’. And while it was impossible to stop environmental legislation … the president said that the requirement for low sulfur fuels in both emission control areas and eventually on the high seas will be a ‘game changer’ for many owners, who will be forced to burn low sulfur fuel or LNG, in the absence of some spectacular advance in exhaust scrubbing technology. The availability of distillate fuel in sufficient quantities remains far from sure, and BIMCO, he emphasizes, will be using its influence to have the implementation of the legislation deferred.” –

* On May 28th Stena AB CEO Carl-Johan Hagman warned the International Chamber of Shipping at the Liepzig forum that the price difference between residual and distillate fuel is set to increase.
Protection of the environment is of great importance, he said, but distillate fuels currently cost around 50% more than residual fuel and the difference is set to increase as the use of distillate becomes mandatory. Posing the question, how ship owners should manage these extra fuel costs, Mr. Hagman said increases ‘threaten to be so high that they may have a dramatic impact on world trade or force cargo back onto roads or to less carbon efficient modes of transport, and if governments and regulators are serious about the concept of sustainable shipping, then we must give serious consideration to these cost-benefit questions.’-

[This is just the latest hoax. Ship owners will “manage these extra fuel costs” by passing them on to the end user, the consumer. It’s that simple.

Note also that although millions of gallons of fuel are still leaking from the thousands of ships sunk during World War II, the ocean remains absolutely pure – simply because it’s “too big to … pollute.”
And the sky? It couldn’t be bluer out there! Like the man said, it’s a “politically-inspired agenda”.]