This year’s 2018 'Call for Projects' requests concept papers for a variety of projects that have the potential to reduce emissions, including diesel particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides and GHG. Projects for vessels, trucks, trains, terminal equipment and harbor craft that warrant further consideration will be invited later to submit a full proposal. Concept papers are due Tuesday, May 22.

The Ports’ TAP is focused on clean technologies specifically for maritime related mobile sources that operate in and around ports. The Ports have identified the following mobile source applications for TAP funding priority:

  • Zero or near-zero emissions on-road drayage trucks;
  • Zero or near-zero emissions cargo-handling equipment;
  • Locomotive technologies;
  • Harbor craft technologies; and
  • Ship technologies.

Since 2007, the Ports have shed great focus on air quality and have distributed over $21 million in funds to advance the commercial availability of technology that will help reducing air pollution from ships, trucks, harbor craft, cargo handling equipment and rail locomotives serving the Ports.

The TAP was created by the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP), adopted in 2006. The CAAP, a landmark effort aimed at lowering health risks from air pollution, was updated last November. The update calls for even more aggressive strategies to reduce pollution and greenhouse gases and to ultimately transition to zero emissions operations over the next 20 years.

  • Compared to 2005 levels, port-related air pollution emissions in San Pedro Bay have dropped 87% for diesel particulate matter, 56% for nitrogen oxides, and 97% for sulfur oxides.
  • Targets for reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs) from port-related sources were introduced as part of the 2017 CAAP Update. The document calls for the ports to reduce GHGs 40%below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.

Earlier in April, officials from the Port of Long Beach, Southern California Edison and the California Energy Commission launched US’s largest pilot project for zero-emissions cranes and other cargo-handling equipment for seaports, called "Zero-Emissions Terminal Transition Project." The project is funded mostly by a $9.7 million grant from the California Energy Commission, and will bring 25 zero-emissions vehicles to Long Beach terminals for one year to test their performance in a real-world setting.

The Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach are the two largest ports in the US, first and second respectively, and combined are the tenth-largest port complex in the world, handling nearly 40% of the nation’s total containerized import traffic and 25% of its total exports.