Opinion – Pacific Maritime Magazine

25 Jul

NWSA Sees Biggest Monthly Container Volumes of 2023

Karen Robes MeeksNews, News Briefs, Opinioncontainervolumes, NWSA, portofseattle, portoftacoma

The Northwest Seaport Alliance saw its biggest container volume month of 2023 last month when it handled 252,232 units, according to data released by the alliance July 19. The NWSA, which is the marine cargo partnership jointly operated by ports of Seattle and Tacoma, also reported a 16.1% increase in June in full imports and an almost 5% jump in full exports last month over May. “Ocean service schedule consistency has improved at the gateway, helping drive the month-over-month improvement,” the NWSA said in a statement. Meanwhile, year-over-year statistics continue to reflect 2022’s pandemic-driven numbers and continued softening of import…

04 Nov

Op-ed: A Ship Within Troubled Waters

John McLaurinNews, News Briefs, Opinion, PMM Online News

The vessel/hotel Queen Mary and its conjoined Russian submarine, sit abandoned and rusting in Long Beach. They are an example of civic pride gone awry and failed governmental oversight. The Queen Mary is a story of unfulfilled promises, multiple bankruptcies, city auditor reports, unaccounted for public funds, multiple operators and a vessel/hotel that has bounced between the City of Long Beach and the Port of Long Beach, back to the city and now a proposal to give it back to the port. The Queen Mary is indeed iconic. It is also a failure and an example of poor public policy…

01 May

Tacoma LNG Facility Nears Opening Date

Pacific MaritimeFeatures, Opinion

Submitted by Puget Sound Energy The Port of Tacoma is a deep-water, major shipping hub in the Pacific Northwest. Soon, it will also be home to a new LNG facility capable of providing marine vessels with a safe, reliable, and economic source of liquefied natural gas. That facility, the Tacoma LNG plant, is a jointly-owned endeavor between Washington State utility Puget Sound Energy (PSE) and its commercial sister company Puget LNG. The project broke ground on Nov. 1, 2016 and, ever since, the plant and its team have continued to successfully reach the milestones that a project of this complexity…

01 Apr

LNG as a Marine Fuel –
Our Zero Emissions Future Starts Now

Pacific MaritimeOpinion

By Peter Keller Now that we have passed January 2020, the much-anticipated global sulphur cap is finally a reality. The importance of this clean air initiative for global health is widely agreed and should not be under emphasized. Likewise, the critical role that LNG can play in clean air and global health initiatives must not be forgotten or trivialised as these are still matters of real concern to the world’s citizens. I said 2019 would be the year of acceleration for LNG, and it was! With increasing orders for LNG- fueled vessels and LNG bunker vessels, together with expanding infrastructure…

02 Feb

Environmental Issues Posed Anew as Navy Prepares for Future War Games in Gulf of Alaska

tammypooleOpinion

U.S. Navy officials doing the groundwork on future military war games in the Gulf of Alaska are being challenged by several conservation entities who contend the Navy should prepare a revised draft supplemental environmental impact statement. The Navy contends that the document is at an appropriate level of analysis because there are no major changes in proposed future training activities included.Still all public comment received on the draft document will be addressed in the final EIS/OEIS (overseas EIS), Navy officials said.According to the letter sent in mid-February to the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Northwest, concerns from the conservation groups include…