Joe Biden’s administration is awarding nearly $3bn 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 east coast US shipping routes for months.
The president timed the announcement of the grants ahead of a visit to the city’s main port on Tuesday. Officials say they 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.
Biden’s visit, a week before the 5 November presidential election, is intended to highlight efforts by him and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, to promote clean energy while protecting and creating good-paying union jobs as she runs against Donald Trump.
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 daily port operations, including unionized longshoremen and truckers.
The new grants include $147m 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 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 $3bn through the Clean Ports Program administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Ports receiving money include the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; the Detroit-Wayne County Port Authority; and 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 US history.
During a White House call with reporters on Monday, officials said the grants also will advance environmental justice by reducing diesel air pollution from US ports.
“Our ports are the backbone of our economy – critical hubs that support our supply chain, drive commerce, create jobs and connect us all,” the EPA’s administrator, Michael Regan, said. “But we cannot overlook the challenges faced by the communities that live and work near these ports. Too often, these communities face serious air quality challenges due to diesel pollution from trucks, ships and other port machinery.”
Protecting people and the environment “doesn’t come at the expense of a booming economy”, Regan said in an implicit rebuke to Trump and Republican allies of the former president who have complained that strict environmental regulations hinder the economy. “In fact, healthy communities and a strong economy go hand in hand.”
The grant announcements, which follow $31m 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 $102m in cleanup costs to settle a lawsuit brought by the US justice department.
The settlement does not cover any damages for rebuilding the bridge, a project that could cost close to $2bn. The state of Maryland has filed its own claim seeking those damages, among others.
Funding through the Clean Ports Program will slash more than 3m metric tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions, the equivalent to energy use by nearly 400,000 homes for one year, Regan said. It also will cut 12,000 tons of nitrogen oxide and other harmful pollutants, he said.
John Podesta, senior adviser to the president for international climate policy, said the grants would help fulfill a promise by Biden and Harris to “rebuild our nation’s infrastructure and tackle the climate crisis ... and uplift the communities who’ve borne the brunt of pollution”.
In February, the EPA announced two separate funding opportunities for US ports, a competition to directly fund zero-emission equipment and infrastructure and a separate competition for climate change and air-quality programs. More than $8bn in requests from applicants across the country were received.
Vernice Miller-Travis, a longtime advocate for environmental justice, hailed the EPA grants, which come after years of complaints by environmental and public health leaders that harmful pollution from the nation’s ports too often was overlooked.
“What an incredible moment this is,” she said. “This is real money. And … these kinds of investments … can really make transformation in local conditions and local operations and in people’s lives.”
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