Are the Great Lakes the key to solving America’s emissions conundrum?

Nearly four decades had passed since the Great Lakes witnessed that unique ritual: the smashing of a bottle of champagne off the bow of a U.S.-flagged cargo ship.

When it finally happened in October 2021 with the launching of the MV Mark W. Barker, a 639-foot-long freighter, in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, it marked a new dawn.

The first bulk carrier to enter service on the Great Lakes for 37 years, the ship can transport goods ranging from salt to wind turbine blades to shipping containers. Its hull design means it can hold 20 percent more cargo than vessels of a similar size. It’s also the first ship sailing the Great Lakes to meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s tier 4 emissions standards.

“It’s the most capable, most environmentally friendly asset we have,” says Brendan O’Connor, chief operations officer for the Interlake Steamship Company, which operates the MV Mark W. Barker. 

The ship, and others like it, are a critical piece of the climate change puzzle. As the deadlines for meeting the Paris Climate Agreement’s emissions targets draw ever closer—with the goal for emissions to peak before 2025 and decline 43 percent by 2030—one industry is inducing panic: the transportation world. 

America’s transportation industry is the country’s leading source of carbon emissions, responsible for a whopping 29 percent. And while privately-owned vehicles make up 58 percent of that, medium- and heavy-duty trucks carrying bulk materials account for 23 percent.

Yet one weapon in the battle against emissions may be sitting in plain sight: the Great Lakes.

Linking Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Toronto, Buffalo, and other cities that are home to about 32 million people, Great Lakes shipping could play a significant role in helping the U.S. and Canada dramatically reduce their emissions footprints.

Transporting more goods with fewer vehicles

Today, several ports have projects that could help facilitate that change.

The Port of Cleveland on Lake Erie is set for a $32-million infrastructure upgrade. Farther west on Lake Superior, the Port of Duluth-Superior was recently expanded to handle international container freight. One survey of public and private investments found more than $8.4 billion has been committed to developing Great Lakes maritime infrastructure.

Road freight emits up to 100 times the amount of emissions of ships—a single Great Lakes vessel can carry as much bulk material as 2,800 semi-trucks or 700 rail cars. With gas prices raising trucking costs on average and rail strike threats growing in recent years, Great Lakes shipping could serve as a cleaner, more efficient way to transport many of the critical items America’s economy relies on. 

Still, challenges abound. The two largest Great Lakes cities—Toronto and Chicago— currently both have comparatively small port infrastructure systems. 

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The Port of Toronto’s economic impact is dwarfed by ports in Montreal and Vancouver, while Chicago’s port has been falling into disrepair for decades. Despite this poor infrastructure, experts say the Port of Chicago has significant potential as a major hub because it is also connected to the Mississippi River by the Illinois Waterway, a network of canals, lakes, and rivers. 

Not a perfect solution

Shipping hasn’t always been a cleaner alternative. In 2021, ships traversing the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway, the body of water that connects the lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, consumed 500,000 tons of fuel that emitted 1.6 million tons of carbon dioxide, according to one study. That’s the equivalent of around 380,000 cars.

Still, experts say that opportunities for change are growing.

“It’s technically feasible to decarbonize every ship in the fleet,” says Bryan Comer, marine program director at the International Council on Clean Transportation, a Washington, D.C.-based research institute. “The question is: What are the regulatory and economic drivers or incentives to do that?”

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Comer says that while there’s potential for electrifying smaller ships such as tugboats, to meet U.S. emissions targets, some larger ships will need new propulsion technologies that replace internal combustion engines with fuel cells that run on ‘green hydrogen,’ an energy resource made from renewable electricity.

“That is going to be the ingredient in all of the fuels that are used,” he says.  

To help meet this transition, the U.S. Department of Energy has made $7 billion available to build up to 10 so-called ‘hydrogen hubs’ across the country. 

“A lot of our efforts are in the scale-up of large-scale production of the clean hydrogen molecules—building out the infrastructure, the storage (and) the delivery,” says Neil Banwart of the Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen, one of seven awardees of the federal funding.

“We certainly do hope that Great Lakes shipping is [a buyer], a use case for this clean hydrogen that we intend to produce.”

Small steps toward big change

In the meantime, Great Lakes ports and shipping companies are working on short-term ways to push the industry closer to net zero.

The Port of Cleveland’s infrastructure update includes an electrification plan and charging stations it hopes will help it fulfill its goal of becoming the first net-zero emissions port on the Great Lakes by 2050. 

The Interlake Steamship Company hopes to cut its emissions footprint by 50 percent in the next decade.

“The engines are going to be the best way for us to move the needle,” says Brendan O’Connor. 

“We’re not quite there yet but in the next two or three years I think we’ll see changes.”