The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) announced its support for the request by the U.S. government to protect against global shipping pollution generated by large ocean-going ships. During a noon news conference on March 30, at Port Newark, New Jersey, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced that the U.S. government applied to designate U.S. coastal waters as "Emission Control Areas" under international law. An Emission Control Area, or ECA, would provide the strongest clean air standards available under international law. The EDF said that it would dramatically improve fuel quality and reduce smog-forming oxides of nitrogen for all ocean-going ships in the exclusive economic zone of the United States…