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The S.S. Badger is an iconic ferry. The 72-year-old vessel is the last coal-fired steamship in the country. For decades it has shuttled passengers across Lake Michigan, from Ludington, Michigan to Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
Now, its new owners, Interlake Maritime Services, are bucking decades of controversy, using a $600,000 federal grant to study what an emissions-free Badger would look like.
Kelly House, an environment reporter for Bridge Michigan, recently wrote about the possibility of the S.S. Badger getting off coal. IPR’s Izzy Ross spoke with House about what’s behind the shift, and what it may look like.
Read House's full story, and check out photos of the Badger.
Listen to the interview with the audio player at the top of this story.
Read a transcript of the interview here:
IZZY ROSS: The S.S. Badger is an iconic ferry. It travels across Lake Michigan, from Ludington to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. It's the nation's last coal fired steamship, and now the Badger's owners are thinking about transitioning the ship from coal to an emissions free energy source. They're conducting a study on what that would look like.
For more we have Kelly House of Bridge Michigan with us to talk about her piece on the S.S. Badger going renewable. Kelly, you went to the S.S. Badger and you went on the ship, you met some of the people working there. The S.S. Badger runs on coal right now. It's a steamship. You can see the billowing clouds of soot coming out of the smokestack. Why do the people running the S.S. Badger want to go renewable?
KELLY HOUSE: About two years ago, the S.S. Badger was purchased by a new company, Interlake Maritime Services. They're a company in Ohio that has multiple ships. Most of them are like freighter type, you know, diesel powered. They bought the Badger, and I think they just quickly realized, you know, this is it's not going to look good if we continue owning this coal fired ferry when we're talking about decarbonizing the rest of our fleet. Their sustainability manager told me it is hard to talk about your decarbonization wins when you have, "the elephant in the room," being this coal-fired ship.
It's the only coal-fired steamship in the entire nation. And it's a problem, of course, if our government is talking about shifting toward renewable, the days are probably numbered for the ship, one way or the other.
It really is a stark 180 from the previous ownership that basically refused. There were decades of battles between the previous owners and environmental groups over the air pollution from the coal burning, and also over water pollution, because for most of this ship's history, the coal ash was just dumped directly into Lake Michigan.
But there also is a lot of money right now to explore decarbonization. And part of the reason that this project is able to happen on the Badger is because they got a federal grant to help pay for the study.
ROSS: What would a renewable or clean energy S.S. Badger look like? How would that even work?
HOUSE: That's a great question. No one has an answer — yet. But it could look like battery, potentially. That's really hard to imagine right now as the sole source of energy for a giant 400-some-foot steel vessel. But because it's a ferry, it has the advantage that it has a limited route, and it docks in the same spot every night. I imagine, in my mind, a giant EV car charger that's ship sized. That's one option. One option is using like diesel, or some of the fuels that we're already really familiar with for ships, but having a carbon capture system on board.
ROSS: Does it say anything about the bigger push for renewables in Great Lakes shipping and other maritime activities?
HOUSE: I think in some ways it's like a moonshot. You know, if you can do the Badger, certainly you must be able to do the ships that are on diesel. Some people are excited about getting ambitious here, even though, in our day-to-day, we have a lot of debates politically about whether or not green energy is the future.
Also interesting to me is the fact that this is being done willingly by a company that is not being required to do it. I think that says something about where industry sees things heading, you know, regardless of who becomes president or how energy policy looks a year or two from now.
This is going to be a more difficult transition. It may take longer. Some of the technologies that they're exploring aren't really feasible today, but they're hoping maybe in a couple years, they will be
ROSS: Did you hear anything from people who are on the ship about what this could mean for them, and mean for their jobs or their relationship with Great Lakes shipping?
HOUSE: It was a real mixed bag from workers. Part of the thing about a coal-fired steamship is that it is not automated. It requires more workers than modern ships do, and there's a real camaraderie around that. There's a real pride about sort of being part of maintaining this history.
So there was definitely some sense of sadness amongst some workers, but also the sense that, you know, some of the folks I talked to sort of were like, if this is what can ensure that the Badger keep running into the future, that's their ultimate goal, and they're sort of willing to accept, potentially, a loss or change of some of the jobs on that ship, if it means that the ship itself continues to exist.
