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UNICOLD OPENS NEW PORT OF OAKLAND FACILITY

OAKLAND - The Unicold Corp. has opened a new 20,000 square-foot, temperature controlled transload facility at the Port of Oakland.

The new distribution facility replaces the Honolulu-based company's former facility at the port and will handle the consolidation of food products moving through Oakland to Hawaii and Guam.

The new facility is on the port's overweight route that can support up to 95,000 pounds gross. It has 30 truck bays on one side and rail siding that can hold up to 12 boxcars served by both the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe on the other.

Unicold expanded its operations to Oakland in 1978 and has been at the Port of Oakland for 12 years.
 
"COLD IRONING" SURVEY WINS POLB BOARD APPROVAL

LONG BEACH - The Long Beach Harbor Commission has approved the further study of how to electrically power certain ships while docked to cut emissions from their diesel engines.
The vote gives port staff the go-ahead to survey all the "candidate'" vessels that come into the Port of Long Beach to find out how many calls a year they make, how long they spend at berth and how much power they need while there.

According to the port, "candidate" vessel is one that would use a significant amount of power annually, such as a cruise ship or refrigerated vessel or ships that call often and have heavy power demands while docked.

The decision follows on from a yearlong port study, released in April, on a cross-section of ships that call here to determine which would be best suited for cold-ironing - the term for powering ships electrically at dock.

Air quality officials say as much as 2% of all the air pollution in Southern California can be directly attributed to diesel cargo vessels that run their engines while docked with analysts saying cold-ironing would significantly reduce those emissions.

The commission's vote also instructs staff to estimate potential emission reductions from electrically powering ships; discuss the possibility of building a power plant at the port; and, negotiate with Southern California Edison for lower electricity rates for cold-ironing.

While unanimously approving the further studies, some on the commission were quick to say that they didn't want to see cold-ironing become a requirement, but rather an option.

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