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How California’s ‘green’ port fee raises costs for all of America

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California has a “green” rule that is raising the costs of goods on store shelves all across America. Most Americans have never heard of it, and that’s the point.

The regulation is called the Vessels At Berth rule. It has been effect since 2023, and it requires every cargo ship, tanker, and container vessel docked at California ports to shut off its diesel engines.

Ships also have to plug into the state’s electrical grid, install state-approved emissions technology, or pay fees into a state account for every hour of every visit.

The California Vessels At Berth rule functions as a climate change tax on the entire country — set by an unelected California agency, paid for by consumers in all 50 states, but never voted on by Congress.

California’s ports move around 40% of the nation’s containerized imports. The shipping companies don’t just eat these costs; they fold them into freight rates, which flow into wholesale prices, which are passed along to what you pay at checkout for produce, electronics, clothing, and anything else that touched a container ship.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB), the state agency responsible for the regulation, estimated the pass-through cost to consumers when it applied for a waiver from the Biden administration in 2023. It claimed costs were minimal: $1.14 per Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) of cargo; $4.65 per passenger on cruise ships; $7.66 per automobile; and less than one cent per gallon of gas on tanker ships.

Whether you trust the agency’s math or........

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