President Joe Biden is set to announce a $3 billion investment to upgrade ports across the U.S. during a Tuesday stop at the Port of Baltimore.
The investment from his Inflation Reduction Act includes $147 million in grants for the Port of Baltimore to decarbonize its cargo handling operations, the White House said in a statement.
The president also planned to express support for longshore union members concerned about automation taking away their jobs, a key issue in a three-day strike at East and Gulf Coast ports earlier this month. Mr. Biden is set to announce the initiative around 2 p.m. Eastern time.
“This funding will protect and create good-paying and union jobs and better working conditions by upgrading port operations and infrastructure to cleaner equipment, while ensuring cleaner air for port workers and nearby communities,” the White House said in a news release.
The federal funds will help purchase “battery-electric and hydrogen-powered human-operated and human-maintained equipment,” such as that used to handle cargo, along with charging and infrastructure, according to the Biden administration. U.S. ports are the “lynchpin of our nation’s supply chains,” and employ 100,000 union workers, the statement added.
The grants announced Tuesday come under a “clean ports” program that authorities hope can improve air quality at the ports by installing “clean, zero-emission freight and ferry technologies along with associated infrastructure.” The goal is to eliminate more than 3 million metric tons of carbon pollution over 10 years, the White House said.
Mr. Biden’s visit also comes months after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge in March, which closed ship traffic in and out of the port of Baltimore and killed six workers.
contributed to this report.
