Article ID: | iaor2003549 |
Country: | United Kingdom |
Volume: | 6D |
Issue: | 6 |
Start Page Number: | 405 |
End Page Number: | 415 |
Publication Date: | Nov 2001 |
Journal: | Transportation Research. Part D, Transport and Environment |
Authors: | Talley Wayne K., Jin Di, Kite-Powell Hauke |
Keywords: | water, biology, petroleum, ecology |
The vessel accident oil-spillage literature has focused on oil-cargo vessels, tankers and tank barges, implicitly assuming that these vessels incur greater accident oil-spillage than other (i.e., non-oil-cargo) vessels which just carry oil in their fuel tanks. This study investigates the validity of this assumption for the post US OPA-90 (Oil Pollution Act of 1990) period by investigating determinants of vessel accident oil-spillage, where one of the hypothesized determinants is type of vessel (including both oil-cargo and non-oil-cargo vessels). Tobit regression estimates of vessel accident oil-spillage functions suggest that tank barges have incurred greater in-water and out-of-water oil-spillage for the post OPA-90 period than non-oil-cargo vessels; alternatively, tankers have not incurred greater out-of-water (in-water) oil-spillage than non-oil-cargo vessels (except for freight ships). The policy implication is that greater attention needs to be given to reducing tank barge accident oil-spillage in the post OPA-90 period.