The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports want to be part of a statewide clean hydrogen hub, through which they would get more than half a billion dollars in federal funding to test out the benefits of using the fuel to power trucking and terminal equipment.
The proposal is the latest effort by the twin seaports as they continue pushing to expand their options for zero-emissions technology.
The ports are part of a California bid to receive hundreds of millions of dollars via federal grants that are available because of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in November 2021. The act, commonly known as the bipartisan infrastructure law, directed the U.S. Department of Energy to provide $10 billion to develop 4 clean hydrogen hubs nationwide.
“We hope to be one of the four,” Gene Seroka, the executive director for the Port of Los Angeles, said on Thursday, March 16. “We are pretty big players (but) we’ve got to be prepared to write our own checks.”
The ports would each have to provide a 50% match of whatever money they receive if California wins one of the four grants.
Heather Tomley, the Port of Long Beach’s managing director of planning and environmental affairs, also touted the importance of being part of the state application.
“The Port of Long Beach sees hydrogen fuel cell technologies as having an important role in our transition to zero-emissions operations,” Tomley said in an emailed statement.
“To establish a robust hydrogen ecosystem,” she added, “we need green hydrogen fuel available at a lower cost, a plentiful network of fueling stations and green hydrogen fuel supply, technically feasible, commercially available and competitively priced fuel cell equipment, and workforce development and training to support hydrogen and fuel cell technology.”
The ports of LA and Long Beach have set goals to have entirely zero-emissions terminal equipment by 2030 and a 100% zero-emissions truck fleet by…
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