WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is awarding 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 East Coast shipping routes for months.
President Joe Biden is set to visit the city’s main port Tuesday to announce the grants, which officials say 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, 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 farm equipment. More than 20,000 workers support daily port operations, including unionized longshoremen and truckers.
Grants being announced Tuesday include $147 million for the Maryland Port Administration. The funds will support over 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 $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.
During a White House call with reporters Monday, officials said the grants also will 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, drive commerce, create jobs and connect us all,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan. “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 former President Donald Trump and other Republicans who have complained that strict environmental regulations hinder 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 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.
John Podesta, senior adviser to the president for international climate policy, said the grants will 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 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.
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. “Fifty-five projects, almost $3 billion in funding. This is real money. And we know when you see these kinds of investments that you can really make transformation in local conditions and local operations and in people’s lives.”