Biden announces $3B to reduce carbon emissions at U.S. ports, ‘the linchpin to America’s supply chain’

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is awarding nearly $3 billion to boost climate-friendly equipment and infrastructure at ports across the country, including Baltimore, where a bridge collapse killed six construction workers in March and disrupted East Coast shipping routes for months.

President Joe Biden announced the federal funding during a visit to the city’s main port, saying the money will improve and electrify port infrastructure at 55 sites nationwide while supporting an estimated 40,000 union jobs, reducing pollution and combating the climate crisis.

The presidential visit was intended to highlight efforts to promote clean energy while protecting and creating jobs.

“Ports are the linchpin to America’s supply chain,” Biden said in a speech at Dundalk Marine Terminal, near the site of the March 26 bridge collapse that closed commercial shipping traffic for nearly three months.

The Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest on the East Coast, is a major hub for the import and export of motor vehicles and farm equipment. More than 20,000 workers support port operations, including unionized longshoremen and truckers.

The Baltimore port and others across the country “keep goods moving — keep the economy strong,” Biden said. “And they employ over 100,000 union workers, from Teamsters to longshoremen. But for too long, they’ve run on fossil fuels and aging infrastructure, putting workers at risk and exposing nearby communities to dangerous pollution.”

The new funding will help ports and communities across the country cut operating costs and keep consumer prices down, “while slashing carbon pollution and supporting an estimated 40,000 new, good-paying jobs to support clean energy manufacturing all across America,” Biden said.

“This is about environmental justice,” he added, citing studies that show higher childhood asthma, cancer and lung and heart disease in residents who live near U.S. ports.

Grants announced Oct. 29 include $147 million for the Maryland Port Administration to buy and install cargo-handling equipment and trucks to transition the port into a zero-greenhouse-gas-emission facility.

The Maryland port is among 55 ports across 27 states and territories that will receive nearly $3 billion through the Clean Ports Program administered by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Ports receiving money include the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Detroit-Wayne County Port Authority, the ports of Savannah and Brunswick, Georgia, as well as Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Oakland, California.

The grants are funded by Biden’s landmark climate law approved in 2022, the largest investment in clean energy in U.S. history.

The grant announcements, which follow $31 million in federal funds to rehabilitate a section of Baltimore’s Dundalk Marine Terminal, come a week after the owner and manager of the cargo ship that caused the deadly bridge collapse agreed to pay more than $102 million in cleanup costs to settle a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department.

The settlement does not cover any damages for rebuilding the bridge, a project that could cost close to $2 billion. The state of Maryland has filed its own claim seeking those damages, among others.

Funding though the Clean Ports program will slash more than 3 million metric tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to energy use by nearly 400,000 homes for one year, Regan said.

It also will cut 12,000 short tons of nitrogen oxides and other harmful pollutants, he said.

In February, the EPA announced two separate funding opportunities for U.S. ports, a competition to directly fund zero-emission equipment and infrastructure and a separate competition for climate change and air-quality programs. More than $8 billion in requests from applicants across the country were received.

Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California hailed the grant announcement, which includes more than $1 billion for seven California ports. The Port of Los Angeles will receive $411 million, the largest award in the country.

“California’s ports move the goods that power our economy,” said Padilla, noting that state ports process about 40% of all containerized imports and 30% of U.S. exports.

The EPA grants will help decarbonize the U.S. supply chain “to produce cleaner air in neighboring communities and meet our climate goals while creating green jobs,” Padilla said.