NORTH BERGEN, NJ – (October 25, 2024) At United States ports where ILA members work, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced 55 selected applications for nearly $3 billion in Clean Ports Program grants funded through the Inflation Reduction Act. The selected applications will fund zero-emission port equipment and infrastructure as well as climate and air quality planning at U.S. ports located in 27 states and territories. The ILA successfully defended its position that this program and its funding would protect longshore jobs against automation and automated equipment.
This new funding program was built on EPA’s Ports Initiative, which helps our nation’s ports, a critical part of our infrastructure and supply chain, address public health and environmental impacts on surrounding communities.
With the leadership of EPA Administrator Michael Regan and the assistance of Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su, one key provision for ports to receive funding for new zero-emission port equipment and infrastructure to reduce greenhouse gases and air pollutants at our nation’s ports is that the EPA will only fund zero-emission equipment that is human operated and human maintained. The EPA reviewed each application so that for each award, the project officer and the recipient reviewed in detail the requested technologies to ensure that all of them met this threshold.
The ILA recognized Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su as one of the nation’s most pro-worker Cabinet member after she helped the ILA and United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) recently negotiate a tentative agreement on wages, ending a three-day strike in early October. To advocate on behalf of ILA longshore workers that new zero-emission equipment being introduced at U.S. ports must be “human operated and human maintained” is a big win for the union and its members.
Selected projects cover a wide range of equipment used at and around ports, with funds supporting the purchase of battery-electric and hydrogen-powered port equipment, including over 1,500 units of cargo handling equipment, 1,000 drayage trucks, 10 locomotives, and 20 vessels, as well as shore power systems and solar power generation.
A link to the Clean Ports Program: https://www.epa.gov/ports-initiative/clean-ports-program-selections
