Environment: Long Beach

Long Beach: Port Awarded Zero-Emissions Equipment Grant

The California Energy Commission (CEC) has announced a "notice of proposed award" for a $9.7 million grant to the Port of Long Beach. The money will help fund the design and creation of 25 new or converted electric cargo handling vehicles to be demonstrated for 12 months at terminals operated by port tenants SSA Marine, International Transportation Service (ITS), Long Beach Container Terminal (LBCT), and logistics company Total Transportation Services Inc. (TTSI).

The grant, which still requires final CEC approval, would pay for most of the $13.7 million project.

The project will include the conversion of nine diesel-electric rubber tire gantry cranes into fully electric equipment for SSA Marine terminal, the purchase of 12 battery-electric yard tractors for ITS and LBCT, and the conversion of TTSI’s four underpowered Class 8, liquefied natural gas trucks into plug-in hybrid-electric trucks. These trucks will also be outfitted with software that enables them to be programmed to operate only in zero-emissions mode near port communities.

The port estimates the project will reduce greenhouse gases by more than 1,323 tons and smog-causing nitrogen oxides by 27 tons. The switch to zero-emissions equipment is also expected to save more than 270,000 gallons of diesel fuel.

"We are the Green Port and other ports look to us to set the example," said Harbor Commission President Lori Ann Guzmán. "This award is an important step in the Port of Long Beach’s goal of becoming a zero-emissions port. It will go a long way in significantly reducing the amount of emissions generated from operations at the port and make our air cleaner for the communities surrounding it."