WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is allocating nearly $3 billion to boost climate-friendly equipment and infrastructure at ports across the country, including Baltimore, where a deadly bridge collapse killed six construction workers in March and disrupted shipping lanes on the East Coast for months.
President Joe Biden will visit the city’s main port on Tuesday to announce the grants, which officials say will improve and electrify port infrastructure at 55 locations across the country while supporting an estimated 40,000 union jobs and reducing pollution and the climate crisis will be tackled. The presidential visit, a week before Election Day, is intended to highlight efforts by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to promote clean energy while protecting and creating good-paying union jobs.
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 agricultural equipment. More than 20,000 employees support daily port operations, including unionized dockworkers and truck drivers.
The grants announced Tuesday include $147 million for the Maryland Port Administration. The funds will support more than 2,000 jobs by enabling the purchase and installation of cargo handling equipment and trucks to transform the port into a facility with zero greenhouse gas emissions.
The Port of Maryland is one of 55 ports in 27 states and territories that will receive nearly $3 billion through the port Clean Ports Program managed by the Environmental Protection Agency. Ports receiving funds include the Port Authorities 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 milestone climate law approved in 2022, the largest clean energy investment in US history.
During a White House call with reporters Monday, officials said the subsidies will also advance environmental justice by reducing diesel air pollution from U.S. ports.
“Our ports are the backbone of our economy – critical hubs that support our supply chain, stimulate trade, create jobs and connect us all,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan. “But we cannot overlook the challenges facing the communities that live and work. Near these ports, these communities too often face serious air quality challenges due to diesel pollution from trucks, ships and other port machinery.”
Protecting people and the environment “does not come at the expense of a thriving economy,” Regan said in an implicit rebuke to former President Donald Trump and other Republicans who have complained that strict environmental regulations are hampering the economy. “In fact, healthy communities and a strong economy go hand in hand,” Regan said.
The grant announcements, which follow $31 million in federal funds to rehabilitate part of Baltimore’s Dundalk Marine Terminal, come a week after the owner and manager of the freighter that caused the deadly bridge collapse agreed to pay more than $102 million in cleanup costs to settle a lawsuit brought by the United States Department of Justice.
The settlement does not cover damages for rebuilding the bridge, a project that could cost nearly $2 billion. The state of Maryland has, among other things, filed its own claim seeking this compensation.
Funding through the Clean Ports program will reduce more than 3 million tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions, equivalent to the energy consumption of nearly 400,000 homes for a year, Regan said. It will also reduce 12,000 tons of nitrogen oxides and other harmful pollutants, he said.
John Podesta, the president’s senior adviser for international climate policy, said the grants will help deliver on a pledge by Biden and Harris to “rebuild our nation’s infrastructure and tackle the climate crisis … and lift up communities who have been victims of pollution.”
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 were received from applicants across the country.
Vernice Miller-Travis, a longtime environmental justice advocate, praised the EPA grants, which follow years of complaints from environmental and public health leaders that harmful pollution from the nation’s ports was too often overlooked.
“What an incredible moment this is,” she said. “Fifty-five projects, almost $3 billion in funding. This is real money. And we know that when you see these types of investments, you can really create transformation in local circumstances and local conditions. operations and in people’s lives.”