WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is giving nearly $3 billion to boost green equipment and infrastructure at ports across the country, including in Baltimore, where a deadly area. the collapse of the bridge killed six construction workers in March and disrupted East Coast shipping routes for months.

President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit the city’s main port Tuesday to announce the grants, which officials say will improve and electrify port infrastructure at 55 locations nationwide while supporting about 40,000 union jobs, reducing pollution and combating the climate crisis. The presidential visit, a week before Election Day, is meant to highlight Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ efforts 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 workers support daily port operations, including liquidators and unionized truckers.

The grants announced Tuesday include $147 million for the Maryland Port Authority. The funds will support more than 2,000 jobs, enabling the purchase and installation of cargo handling equipment and trucks to transition the port into a zero-greenhouse-gas-emissions facility.

The Port of Maryland is among 55 ports in 27 states and territories to receive nearly $3 billion through 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 clean energy investment in US history.

During a White House call with reporters Monday, officials said the grants would 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, drive trade, create jobs and connect us all,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan. “But we cannot overlook the challenges facing the communities where they live and work. Near these ports, these communities face serious air quality challenges from diesel pollution from trucks, ships and other port machinery.

Protecting people and the environment “does not come at the expense of a booming economy,” Regan said in an implicit rebuke of 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 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 filed by the US Department of Justice.

The settlement does not cover any damages for the reconstruction of the bridge, a project that could cost nearly $2 billion. The state of Maryland filed its own claim for damages, among others.

Funding through the Clean Ports program will reduce more than 3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, equivalent to the energy use of nearly 400,000 homes, for one year, Regan said. It will also reduce 12,000 short tons of nitrogen oxides and other harmful pollutants, he said.

John Podesta, the president’s senior adviser on international climate policy, said the grants would help fulfill Biden and Harris’ promise to “rebuild our nation’s infrastructure and address the climate crisis … and lift up the communities that have endured heavy pollution.”

In February, the EPA announced two separate funding opportunities for US ports, a competition for direct funding of zero-emissions equipment and infrastructure and a separate competition for climate change and air quality programs. More than $8 billion in applications were received from applicants across the country.

Vernice Miller-Travis, a longtime environmental justice advocate, welcomed the EPA grants, which come after years of complaints by environmental and public health leaders that harmful pollution from the nation’s ports has been too often overlooked.

“What an incredible moment this is,” she said. “Fifty-five projects, nearly $3 billion in funding. This is real money. And we know that when you see those kinds of investments, you can really transform local conditions and local operations and people’s lives.

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