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

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is awarding nearly $3 billion to boost climate-amiable 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 financing Tuesday during a visit to the city’s main port, saying the money will enhance 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, was intended to highlight efforts by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to promote tidy vigor while protecting and creating jobs.

“Ports are the linchpin to America’s supply chain,” Biden said in a talk at Dundalk Marine Terminal, near the site of the March 26 bridge collapse that closed commercial shipping traffic for nearly three months. A tiny blue and white sign near the site reminded passersby, “assignment funded by President Joe Biden’s worth rise Reduction Act,” the 2022 law approved with only Democratic votes.

While the grant announcement appeared timed to assist Harris’ campaign for president, Biden seemingly ignored those concerns as he followed Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore to the outdoor podium, flanked by metal ship containers. “I ponder he may be the best governor in the country,” Biden said of Moore, bypassing a chance to compliment Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Biden used his talk to repeatedly judge former President Donald Trump, and he took an indirect swipe at a controversy Trump is facing after appearing at a weekend rally in recent York where racist comments were made about Puerto Rico. Biden emphasized that federal financing for ports includes Puerto Rico. At one point, he even reminded himself with a laugh, “Don’t get going, Joe. leisurely up.”

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 back port operations, including unionized longshoremen and truckers.

The Baltimore port and others across the country “keep goods moving — keep the economy powerful,″ 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 uncertainty and exposing nearby communities to risky pollution.″

The recent financing will assist ports and communities across the country cut operating costs and keep buyer prices down, “while slashing carbon pollution and supporting an estimated 40,000 recent, excellent-paying jobs to back tidy vigor manufacturing all across America,” Biden said.

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

Grants announced Tuesday include $147 million for the Maryland Port Administration to buy and install cargo-handling equipment and trucks to shift 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 tidy Ports Program administered by the Environmental Protection Agency. Ports receiving money include the Port Authority of recent York and recent 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 resource in tidy vigor in U.S. history.

Protecting people and the surroundings “doesn’t arrive at the outlay of a booming economy,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said before Biden’s visit, offering an implicit rebuke to Trump and other Republicans who have complained that strict environmental regulations hinder the economy. “In truth, well communities and a powerful economy leave hand in hand,” Regan said.

The grant announcements, which pursue $31 million in federal funds to rehabilitate a section of Baltimore’s Dundalk Marine Terminal, arrive 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. fairness Department.

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

financing though the tidy Ports program will slash more than 3 million metric tons of earth-warming carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to vigor 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, elder White House adviser for international climate policy, said the grants will assist fulfill a commitment by Biden and Harris to “rebuild our country’s infrastructure and tackle the climate crisis … and uplift the communities who’ve borne the brunt of pollution.”

In February, the EPA announced two divide financing opportunities for U.S. ports, a competition to directly fund zero-emission equipment and infrastructure and a divide competition for climate transformation and air-standard 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 shift the goods that power our economy,” Padilla said Tuesday, noting that state ports procedure about 40% of all containerized imports and 30% of U.S. exports. The EPA grants will assist decarbonize the U.S. supply chain “to produce cleaner air in neighboring communities and meet our climate goals while creating green jobs,” Padilla said.

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Associated Press writers Will Weissert in Washington and Ayanna Alexander in Baltimore contributed to this narrative.