Paul Berger of The Wall Street Journal reports that a new administration could rescind federal support if projects aren’t finalized soon. Berger writes:
Ports around the U.S. are rushing to nail down green-energy projects to ensure they receive their portions of $3 billion in new federal grants, funding that faces tight government deadlines and potential disruption from the presidential election.
The Environmental Protection Agency awarded the money this week to dozens of ports for investments such as new solar arrays, upgrades to electric shore power and purchases of thousands of new electric- and hydrogen-powered heavy-duty lifting equipment and trucks.
The agency aims to finalize most of the 55 awards by the end of December so that the federal government is legally bound to make the payouts, said Ian Gansler, director of government relations at the American Association of Port Authorities. […]
California is moving to mandate the purchase of heavy-duty trucks powered by batteries or hydrogen. But adoption of the new technologies has been slow. Clean technology trucks can cost three times more than conventional diesel vehicles and access to charging and refueling infrastructure is scarce.
Some of the EPA grants have been awarded to programs that would scrap some diesel-powered trucks at ports and would back the installation of plug-in electric shore power systems that allow ships at berth to turn off auxiliary diesel engines.
Read more here.
