Phase out the use of bunker fuel at our ports - help the environment while also encouraging local manufacturing.
Why is this important?
Bunker fuel is an extremely dirty fuel used by large ships such as oil tankers and container ships - one container ship emits as much pollution as 50 million cars. Bunker-fuel-using ships cause the hazy atmosphere and air pollution around our nation's ports and health problems in those communities. But we don't have to use this type of fuel: There is a current surplus of ships, so a phase-out of bunker fuel would encourage the newest ships to visit America's ports and lead to other environmental and safety advantages. Economically, this phase-out would raise the marginal cost of shipping goods into our ports, which would have the very beneficial effect of favoring locally manufactured goods over cheap imported goods.
