Require cruise ships to plug into shore power while docked in Seattle

Reducing a cruise ship’s greenhouse gas emissions is a herculean undertaking, among the toughest nuts to crack in the quest for a decarbonized economy. With this in mind, the Port of Seattle invested tens of millions of dollars to install cables, conduit and other infrastructure at its piers so these gargantuan ships can run on shoreside electricity rather than their gas-and-particulate-belching engines.

As the 2024 cruise season begins Saturday, it’s time for the port to require cruise ships to plug in on Seattle’s waterfront. So far not all have made that commitment.

The world’s biggest cruise lines have agreed to ambitious climate goals within the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization, advocating for carbon neutrality by 2050. Getting there will be a daunting task. Converting cruise ships to hybrid or electric power is not possible “because the battery would be bigger than the ship,” points out Robert Morgenstern, senior vice president for Holland America and Princess Cruises’ Alaska operations. The industry is focused on finding a source of green power but it’s likely still years from being ready for use.

“The fuels of the future will take time, but shore power is here now,” Morgenstern said.  

The Port of Seattle has made that power possible at both Pier 91 and Pier 66, spending $44 million at the latter to do so.

Disappointingly, cruise ships plugged in at Seattle piers only about one-third of the time in 2023. That percentage should rise dramatically. The port’s commissioners should have a simple rule: cruise ships that won’t plug in can’t dock here.   

Holland America and Princess Cruises have been using shoreside power in Seattle since 2005. Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have not.

Morgenstern notes it actually costs the lines more money to plug in than to run their engines in port. But the commitment is to the environment and neighboring residents, he said.

Norwegian, meanwhile, has prime parking at Pier 66, sandwiched between Seattle’s Great Wheel to the south and the Olympic Sculpture Park to the north. The company’s ship, the Norwegian Bliss, will make its first cruise to Alaska on Saturday.

While the ship was away, the port in January laid a mile-long cable along the Elliott Bay seafloor — the most viable way port staff felt they could bring power to the pier. The cable will connect a substation at Terminal 46 south of Colman Dock with the Bliss’ Pier 66, which Norwegian has leased through 2030. By July, the port expects to have installed a large transformer that will make shore power possible there for the first time.

The port and the company are currently negotiating Norwegian’s contribution to the project — a welcome gesture given previous years of emitting carbon and sulfur dioxide, nitric oxide and other harmful particulate matter on Seattle’s waterfront.

Once the electricity is flowing in July, Norwegian should hook up the Bliss to shore power at the soonest possible moment, fulfilling promises that David Herrera, president of Norwegian Cruise Line, said of his company’s desire to decarbonize. It’s “not lip service,” he said at a recent Seattle conference of the Cruise Lines International Association, a trade group, adding of his own children in an era of climate change: “I want them to enjoy what I enjoy.”

A shore-powered Bliss is a start. The company estimates it will save 18 metric tons of traditional marine fuel from burning each year, while reducing 57 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per season.  

The Port of Seattle’s current goal is a 100% connection rate between ships and electricity by 2030. Its commissioners should require ships to plug into shore power now or document their plans to convert their ships so they can plug in.