Clean Ports Program: Climate and Air Quality Planning Competition (US)

Deadline: 28-May-24

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced applications for Clean Ports Program Climate and Air Quality Planning Competition to conduct climate and air quality planning activities under the EPA’s Clean Ports Program.

The EPA’s Clean Ports Program will fund climate and air quality planning activities at United States ports – including emissions inventories, strategy analysis, community engagement, and resiliency measure identification – that will build the capacity of port stakeholders to continue to reduce pollution and transition to zero-emissions (ZE) operations over time. The Clean Ports Program will also fund ZE port equipment and infrastructure as part of a separate NOFO to reduce mobile source emissions (criteria pollutants, air toxics, and/or greenhouse gases) at United States ports, delivering cleaner air for communities across the country.

This new funding opportunity, made possible by funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, builds on the EPA’s Ports Initiative, an ongoing program that helps the nation’s ports, a critical part of the infrastructure and supply chain, address public health and environmental impacts on surrounding communities.

Program Goals and Objectives

• The EPA’s goals for the Clean Ports Program are to:
  • build a foundation for ports across the country to transition to fully ZE operations, positioning ports to serve as a catalyst for transformational change across the freight sector;
  • reduce mobile source pollution in near port communities, especially disadvantaged communities; and
  • help ensure that meaningful community engagement and emissions reduction planning are port industry standard practices.
• The Climate and Air Quality Planning Competition is designed to fund climate and air quality planning activities focused on one or more ports that fall under the categories of (1) emissions inventory and accounting exercises, (2) strategy analysis and goal setting, (3) stakeholder collaboration and communication, and (4) resilience planning. The list below provides examples of the types of activities within these categories for which applicants may choose to seek funding under this NOFO.

Program Priorities

• Environmental Justice and Disadvantaged Communities:
  • The EPA is committed to accelerating environmental justice (EJ) in communities overburdened by pollution through this program. This program is a covered program under the Justice40 Initiative as set forth in Executive Order 14008: Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. The goal of the Justice40 Initiative is to ensure that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution. The EPA is committed to meeting the objectives of the Justice40 Initiative. Specifically, this program is seeking to prioritize projects that take place in or near communities overburdened by air pollution, including those in designated PM2.5 and Ozone nonattainment areas for the EPA’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards, and with high concentrations of diesel particulate matter (PM).
• Nonattainment areas:
  • As required by the statute, the EPA plans to award a minimum of $750 million for projects in nonattainment areas across this funding opportunity
• Emissions reductions:
  • The EPA encourages applicants to focus on and seek funds for planning projects that will best enable them to build capacity to reduce port emissions and transition to ZE operations over time. For example, applications primarily focused on resiliency planning will not score as favorably as those that include a strong focus on planning activities directly tied to emissions reductions and ZE technology deployment such as emissions inventory development, ZE technology feasibility assessments, and community engagement efforts to identify and prioritize emissions sources to address.

Funding Information

• The total estimated funding expected to be available for awards under this competitive opportunity is $150 million. Funding is dependent upon funding availability, the quantity and quality of applications received, Agency priorities, and other applicable considerations.
• The EPA anticipates awarding 50 to 70 grants or cooperative agreements under this announcement, subject to the availability of funds, the quantity and quality of applications received, Agency priorities, and other applicable considerations. The amount of federal funding requested per application must be at least $200,000 and must not exceed $3,000,000.
• The estimated period of performance for awards resulting from this solicitation will be up to three years. The estimated project start date for awards is December 1, 2024.

Outcomes

• Desired outcomes from the projects to be funded under this announcement include, but are not limited to:
  • Increased community outreach and engagement
  • Increased stakeholder participation in port planning and decision-making to advance environmental justice
  • Increased capacity of the ports to make strategic long-term investments to reduce emissions
  • Increased capacity of the ports to improve resilience to current and future climate change impacts
  • Increased port staff and stakeholder understanding of current port emissions
  • Increased transparency in port planning activities
  • Increased awareness of how future emissions reductions activities could impact port workforce, and plan to preserve and create high-quality jobs
• Other potential outcomes may include, but are not limited to:
  • Financial plan to implement emissions reduction strategies
  • Evidence of applicability of ZE technologies in port settings and duty cycles increased understanding of the environmental or economic effectiveness of the implemented technology
  • Increased public awareness of emissions reduction technologies and/or resiliency measures
  • Training for surrounding community members related to planning practices, with an emphasis on workers from underserved populations
  • New training and employment opportunities for members of near-port communities to prepare for future projects

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible Entities
  • Consistent with Assistance and EPA’s Policy for Competition of Assistance Agreements competition under this solicitation is available to:
    • Port authorities;
    • State, regional, local, or Tribal agencies that have jurisdiction over a port authority  or a port,
    • Air pollution control agencies and
  • Private entities that:
    • own, operate, or use the facilities, cargo-handling equipment, transportation equipment, or related technology of a port.
  • The term “State” means a State, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa and includes the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. “Tribal agencies” are defined as any Indian Tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community (including Alaska Native Villages), which are federally recognized as eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States. The EPA has determined that based on the exclusion of Alaskan Native Corporations (ANCs) from the definition of “Indian tribe” of the Clean Air Act that ANCs are not eligible as a Tribal agency for direct grants from the EPA under this program. ANCs may be eligible as a private entity, however, and may receive subawards from eligible grantees.
  • For the purposes of this NOFO, “intertribal consortium” is defined as a partnership between two or more eligible Tribal agencies that is authorized by the governing bodies of those Tribes to apply for and receive assistance under this program. Intertribal consortia are eligible to receive assistance under this program only if the consortium demonstrates that all members of the consortium meet the eligibility requirements for the program and authorize the consortium to apply for and receive assistance by submitting to the EPA documentation of (1) the existence of the partnership between Indian Tribal governments, and (2) authorization of the consortium by all its members to apply for and receive the assistance.
  • A private entity can include for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations, as long as they meet the requirements For example, a private marine terminal operator could be an eligible private entity.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.