China Harbour Engineering is hoping to build a coal-fired power plant to provide the energy for an envisioned $1.5 billion Jamaican port, the AP reports.
The Chinese company aims to power its planned port with coal to provide "lower cost electricity." Jamaica hopes that the port could transform it into a global logistics hub, breathing life into its sluggish economy at the same time, the AP reports.
China Harbour Engineering has already applied for a license with the island-nation's environment agency to begin geotechnical work. An environmental impact assessment needs to be done for the port, which would be close to one of Jamaica's largest protected areas, to get the go-ahead.
In August, the Port of Los Angeles announced that air pollution associated with its operations were at the lowest level since the port adopted a formal plan to reduce emissions in 2005. The Port’s 2012 Inventory of Air Emissions shows a 79 percent drop in diesel particulate matter over a seven-year period that began in 2005.
Removing cargo volume fluctuations from the equation, the 2012 Inventory shows that the amount of diesel particulate matter emissions related to moving 10,000 20-foot containers through the port in 2012 was 81 percent lower than the emissions output related to moving the same number of containers through the port in 2005.
The Port of Long Beach cut diesel particulates by 81 percent and sulfur oxides 88 over the same time period, according to its 2012 Emissions Inventory report.
