Port of Stockton gets $110 million grant for zero-emissions operations
The Port of Stockton has been awarded a $110.5 million grant to reduce air pollution in what a local congressman called the largest federal investment in its history. U.S. Rep. Josh Harder (D-Tracy) said the funds will help make Stockton the first small port in the nation with zero-emissions terminal operations.
The grant is intended to be used for electric cargo handling equipment, solar power generation and battery storage and to provide shore power to ships when they tie up at wharfs, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday. The grant also will go toward training workers in maintaining the new high-tech equipment.
“These funds will significantly decrease freight-related emissions in the Central Valley by transitioning more than 90% of our cargo-handling equipment to zero emissions,” Stockton Port Director Kirk DeJesus said in a statement.
The grant will help burnish the Port of Stockton’s environmental efforts, which sometimes draw the ire of conservationists. In September, for instance, several environmental groups sued the port alleging a planned project to produce hydrogen from fossil methane will create air pollution and greenhouse gases that lead to climate change.
Despite environmental concerns, the Port of Stockton, however, is a regional economic powerhouse. As the fourth busiest port in the state, the complex accounts for more than 10,000 jobs, officials say. Stockton’s grant is among 55 to be distributed at ports around the nation. The investments, totaling nearly $3 billion, were funded under the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.
Harder said he worked hard to bring the grant to Stockton.
“This means jobs, cutting-edge technology and better air quality for our kids,” said Harder, a Stockton-based Democrat and member of the House Appropriations Committee.
Other California ports receiving grants included Redwood City, Oakland, San Francisco, Oxnard, Los Angeles and San Diego. One goal for the grants is to help reduce pollution at ports that have homes nearby, which is certainly the case in Stockton. Several neighborhoods are situated on the north side of the San Joaquin River across from Rough and Ready Island, home to the Port of Stockton.
“While ports, of course, serve an essential role for moving goods, the costs that they bring in terms of pollution and impacts on overburdened communities must be confronted,” EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman said in a statement.
Replacing diesel-powered freight equipment with zero-emission technology will “reduce air pollution, improve health outcomes in nearby communities, and advance the campaign to tackle climate change,” Guzman said.