The Port of Hueneme has received $10.4 million from the Ventura County Transportation Commission for its North Terminal Shore Power Project, the port announced Dec. 5.
The seaport, located about 58 miles north of Los Angeles, also netted money from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust to enact innovative technologies that would advance electrification, trace air quality progress and lower particulate matter, the port added.
The commission approved the funding at its Dec. 2 meeting.
The project, which is to be constructed under a project labor agreement, calls for car-carrying vessels to link up to shoreside power, eliminating diesel emissions while at berth. The vessels are used for importing and exporting passenger vehicles, which make up a quarter of the port’s imports and exports. Last year, it accounted for $4.99 billion in imports and $228 million in exports, according to the port.
The money could bring an additional 94% drop in particulate matter and a 99% reduction in nitrogen oxides for all shore-power capable car-carrying vessels over the project’s lifetime, Commissioner Celina Zacarias said.
“This historic and unprecedented amount of funding allows the port to continue its work reducing air emissions while continuing to move essential cargo,” said Mary Anne Rooney, president of the Oxnard Harbor District, which owns and governs the Port of Hueneme.
“Over the past 85 years, the port has invested more than $20 million in mutually beneficial environmental projects that foster unity and collaboration with the most impactful and meaningful results for the community,” she said.
