The EPA is issuing this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) to announce the availability of funds and solicit applications from eligible entities to help ports nationwide transition to zero-emission (ZE) operations under the EPA’s Clean Ports Program. The EPA’s Clean Ports Program will fund ZE port equipment and infrastructure 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 our nation’s ports, a critical part of our infrastructure and supply chain, address public health and environmental impacts on surrounding communities.

The EPA’s goals for the Clean Ports Program are to:

1. 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;
2. reduce mobile source pollution in near-port communities, especially disadvantaged communities; and
3. help ensure that meaningful community engagement and emissions reduction planning are port industry standard practices.

The ZE Technology Deployment Competition is designed to fund deployment of strategies and solutions that will help ports achieve zero-emission operations. This includes funding the purchase of ZE equipment, technologies, and related infrastructure directly serving a port, as well as funding support expenses related to deployment. For this funding opportunity, “ZE equipment” means a mobile source that produces zero tailpipe emissions of any criteria pollutant, air toxics, or greenhouse gas other than water vapor, specifically electric and hydrogen fuel cell technologies. Project activities eligible for funding under this NOFO include:

• ZE Mobile Equipment
• ZE Infrastructure Serving Mobile Equipment
• ZE Technology Deployment Support Activities

The Clean Ports Program will also fund climate and air quality planning activities as part of a separate NOFO – 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 ZE operations over time.