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North Carolina ports left out of Biden Administration's 'Clean Ports' program

Workers with Sea & Shoreline place wave attenuation devices into the water off of Morehead City, North Carolina on May 13, 2024. Sugarloaf Island has long acted as a barrier for the Morehead City waterfront but over time it has begun to erode due partly to increased boat traffic. Now a major restoration project is underway to help protect and rebuild the island.
Madeline Gray
/
for WUNC
Workers with Sea & Shoreline place wave attenuation devices into the water off of Morehead City, North Carolina on May 13, 2024. Sugarloaf Island has long acted as a barrier for the Morehead City waterfront but over time it has begun to erode due partly to increased boat traffic. Now a major restoration project is underway to help protect and rebuild the island.

North Carolina ports in Morehead City and Wilmington will not share in a $3 billion Biden Administration program to boost climate-friendly infrastructure at seaports across the country.

President Joe Biden announced the grants Tuesday during a visit to a main port in Baltimore, where a deadly bridge collapse killed six construction workers and disrupted commercial shipping traffic for months. He said the money will improve and electrify port infrastructure at 55 sites nationwide, reducing pollution and combating the climate crisis.

The grants are funded by Biden's landmark climate law approved in 2022, the largest investment in clean energy in U.S. history.

The new funding will help ports and communities across the country cut operating costs and keep consumer prices down, "while slashing carbon pollution and supporting an estimated 40,000 new, good-paying jobs to support clean energy manufacturing all across America,'' Biden said.

The administration initially rolled out the Clean Ports Program at a February event in Wilmington, which featured North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Environmental Protection Agency administrator and North Carolina native Michael Regan.

“Simply put, EPA's Clean Ports Program is an absolute game changer,” Regan said at the time.

A spokeswoman for the North Carolina State Ports Authority said the agency submitted a proposal, but it was not selected. More than $8 billion in requests from applicants across the country were received, according to EPA.

Projects in surrounding states did receive funding, including $380 million for electric cargo handling equipment at the Port of Virginia and more than $1 million for emissions reduction at the South Carolina state port in Charleston.


The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Bradley George is WUNC's AM reporter. A North Carolina native, his public radio career has taken him to Atlanta, Birmingham, Nashville and most recently WUSF in Tampa. While there, he reported on the COVID-19 pandemic and was part of the station's Murrow award winning coverage of the 2020 election. Along the way, he has reported for NPR, Marketplace, The Takeaway, and the BBC World Service. Bradley is a graduate of Guilford College, where he majored in Theatre and German.