A California regulation requiring the historic Balboa Island Ferry in Newport Beach to install electric engines might put them out of business.
The California Air Resources Board, or CARB, is requiring the 104-year-old company to meet zero-emission standards and use electric engines by the end of 2025.
“It’s probably not going to happen. It’s probably impossible,” Seymour Beek, owner of the Balboa Island Ferry, told The Epoch Times.
Beek has been meeting with members of CARB, asking them to postpone the regulation, but such efforts have thus far been unsuccessful.
At this rate, “we [will] stop operating, which is a bad thing for the public and a bad thing for the city of Newport Beach. It’s very popular,” Beek said.
Every year the ferry shuttles around 1.5 million people, up to 400,000 cars, and 500,000 bicyclists, according to the owner.
“A lot of people would miss it if it went away,” Beek said.
Many take the five-minute ferry, which runs between Balboa Island and the Balboa Fun Zone, to see the bay at a much cheaper cost than renting a boat.
The ferry costs $1.50 for pedestrians, $1.75 for bicyclists, and $2.50 per car.
But it isn’t just a tourist attraction. Beek estimates half the ridership is Newport Beach residents, while the rest are visitors.
“Whether they’re going to the hairstylist or the beauty salon or the restaurant or wherever, a lot of people just take the ferry,” he said.
As such, the ferry may be cutting down on air pollution, he said, keeping people who otherwise would have needed to drive longer distances to cross the island.
Beek said his boats currently burn up to 25 gallons of diesel fuel per day, or less than a gallon an hour per boat.
“It’s like about taking one car off the highway to convert us to electric,” he said. “It doesn’t appear to me that it’s a very cost-effective way to spend $3 million or $4 million [on electric engines].”
For Beek, operating the business is not a “major source of income,” but a service to the community.
The ferry employs around 40 people, Beek said, from boat captains to crews, all of whom would lose their job if the ferry closed.
Beek’s father started the operation in 1919 with a rowboat and outboard motor. It has since become a popular destination, especially in recent years.
The ferry raked in $2 million in gross revenue last year, Beek said, a record for the company. But that still falls short of the estimated $4.5 million the company needs to convert its three vessels to meet the state’s zero-emissions requirement, he said.
Plus, the installation of the engine and its batteries would require, for example, redesigning the boats’ ventilation and fire suppression systems—a “very difficult technical problem” that would cost millions of dollars to solve, he said.
Beek said the company would need a government grant to fund the conversion, for which he has hired a consultant in order to secure one with CARB, but the effort has so far been unsuccessful.
But even if the company has enough funding, it still wouldn’t meet the 2025 deadline, ordering an electric motor can take up to 50 months, Beek said.
He said at least a couple of years more might be enough time for the company to become compliant, but thus far there has been no leeway allowed by CARB officials.
A spokesperson for the California Air Resources Board did not respond to a request for comment.
The ferry is among a dozen of its kind—that is, short-run ferries that travel less than three miles—to be impacted by CARB’s zero emission regulation. Others include the San Francisco-based Angel Island Ferry and boats that ferry people to Alcatraz.
The regulations don’t just apply to short-run ferries. Tugboats, sportfishing vessels, whale-watching boats, and dinner cruises must also upgrade their older diesel engines to meet stricter emission standards, with the latter two required to soon have at least 30 percent power from a zero-emission source.
But sportfishing boats received an extension, after widespread pushback among operators, to install electric engines by 2035. But they still must meet stricter standards and install what’s called a Tier 3 engine—one step below electric—by 2025.
The requirement is part of the state’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint through several means, such as banning the sale of gas-powered cars, diesel-powered trucks, gas stoves, and gas water heaters.
“The ideal of cleaning up the environment and making less air pollution is wonderful,” Beek said. “But one size does not fit all. And in our situation, it’s very expensive.”
