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Staff Report –

The Biden-Harris administration continues to announce the spending of billions of dollars to rebuild America’s infrastructure even as the nation focuses on the election next week. But news about these investments seems to generate very little in the way of press coverage, media conversation or attention from the public on social media.

The grants are funded by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment in combating climate change and promoting clean energy in U.S. history. The projects advance environmental justice by reducing diesel air pollution from ports and surrounding communities. while promoting good-paying union jobs that help America’s ports thrive, according to the administration.

As part of the administration’s Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday that the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority has been selected to receive nearly $80 million through EPA’s Clean Ports Program for the deployment of zero-emission port equipment, along with climate and air quality planning tools.

This will include $2 million to identify availability of terminal and near-terminal space and outline a strategy to power and deploy zero-emission equipment. It will include community and stakeholder engagement to ensure public health and assess baseline emissions generated by terminal operations. It will also include more than $77 million For electric cargo handling equipment and a railcar mover, electric charging infrastructure and electrical infrastructure upgrades.

“Our nation’s ports are critical to creating opportunity here in America, offering good-paying jobs, moving goods, and powering our economy,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said in making the announcement. The “historic $3 billion investment builds on President Biden’s vision of growing our economy while ensuring America leads in globally competitive solutions of the future. Delivering cleaner technologies and resources to U.S. ports will slash harmful air and climate pollution while protecting people who work in and live nearby ports communities.”

Ports are vital to the U.S. economy and are responsible for moving goods and people throughout the country. At the same time, the port and freight equipment responsible for moving goods including trucks, locomotives, marine vessels, and cargo-handling equipment contribute to significant levels of diesel air pollution at and near port facilities. This pollution is especially harmful to nearby communities’ health and contributes to climate change.

“While our U.S. Ports are critical to the economy of the Mid-Atlantic region, they also have a significant impact on our environment,” said Adam Ortiz, EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator. “This once-in-a-generation effort to upgrade, modernize, and improve port equipment will have lasting positive impacts on all those who live and work on the East Coast.”

The funds will improve air quality at ports across the country by installing clean, zero-emission freight and ferry technologies along with associated infrastructure, eliminating more than 3 million metric tons of carbon pollution, equivalent to 391,220 homes’ energy use for one year.

“I was proud to vote for the Biden-Harris administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, a landmark clean-energy and health-care law, and this more than $79 million in federal funding for our area is just the latest way it’s benefiting Philadelphia and the region,” said Pennsylvania Congressman Dwight Evans.

In February 2024, EPA announced two separate funding opportunities for U.S. ports – a Zero-Emission Technology Deployment Competition to directly fund zero-emission equipment and infrastructure to reduce mobile source emissions and a Climate and Air Quality Planning Competition to fund climate and air quality planning activities. The competitions closed in May 2024 with over $8 billion in requests from applicants across the country seeking to advance next-generation, clean technologies at U.S. ports.

“The Port of Philadelphia is a critical driver of good-paying jobs for our region and a vital gateway for goods and passengers across the country,” said Pennsylvania Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon. “I’m so pleased to see funding from the Biden-Harris administration’s Investing in America agenda continue to flow into our region, helping clean up pollution at our ports and improving air quality and public health in neighboring communities.”

After a thorough and rigorous grant application review process, EPA selected 55 applications to receive this historic investment. Applications to the Clean Ports Program were evaluated in part on their workforce development efforts to ensure that projects will expand access to high-quality jobs. Grant selections also align with the administration’s national goal for a zero-emission freight sector, the National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization, and the ‘all-of government’ National Zero-Emission Freight Corridor Strategy.

Selected projects cover a wide range of human operated and human maintained equipment used at and around ports, with funds supporting the purchase of battery-electric and hydrogen-powered equipment, including over 1,500 units of cargo handling equipment, 1,000 drayage trucks, 10 locomotives, and 20 vessels, as well as shore power systems, battery-electric and hydrogen vehicle charging and fueling infrastructure, and solar power generation.

Initial estimates of tailpipe reductions from this new equipment are estimated to be over 3 million metric tons of CO2, 12 thousand short tons of NOx, and 200 short tons of PM2.5 in the first 10 years of operation. These estimates are based on initial counts of proposed zero-emission equipment and shore power installations and do not consider benefits from retiring older vehicles, among other factors. These simplified estimates were prepared using national default emissions and activity factors and will be refined over time with more detailed information from selectees.

In addition to protecting human health and the environment, the program will protect and grow good-paying and union port jobs, create new good-paying and union jobs in the domestic clean energy sector, and enhance U.S. economic competitiveness through the innovation, installation, maintenance, and operation of zero-emissions equipment and infrastructure, the administration says. The program’s historic investment in zero-emission port technology will also help promote and ensure the U.S. position as a global leader in clean technologies.

EPA’s Clean Ports Program advances President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which aims to deliver 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution. Disadvantaged communities will benefit from cleaner air and access to high quality jobs that will be created to operate zero emissions technologies at ports.

EPA ensured that near-port community engagement and equity considerations were at the forefront of the Clean Ports Program’s design, including evaluating applications on the extent and quality of their projects’ community engagement efforts. The program will also help to ensure that meaningful community engagement and emissions reduction planning become a part of port industry standard practices by building on the successes of EPA’s Ports Initiative and the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act programs. These programs have previously invested over $196 million to implement 207 diesel emissions reduction projects at ports with an additional $88 million to multi-sector projects that involve ports and have encouraged strong community-port collaboration.

The agency anticipates making awards once all legal, statutory, and administrative requirements are satisfied. Selectees will work with EPA over the coming months to finalize project plans before receiving final awards and moving into the implementation phase. Project implementation will occur over the next three to four years depending on the scope of each project.

That is if Kamala Harris is elected president. If Trump wins, he could cancel the entire program and gut EPA and other federal agencies and funding as he did in his first term.

Learn more about the Clean Ports Program selected applications online here.

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