Posted on July 15, 2020
America’s ports have some of the dirtiest air, thanks to the constant loading and unloading of ships and moving freight around using diesel engines.
The diesel is really the workhorse of commerce, doing the heavy lifting that humans and animals used to do before the era of the infernal combustion engine arrived.
The coastal area between Los Angeles and Long Beach in California were once the busiest ports in the world (Trump and the coronavirus have altered that scenario significantly) but the Port of Virginia is also a major import hub on America’s East Coast. Now here’s the “every cloud has a silver lining” part. Virginia has decided to use $14 million of the $93.6 million in funds it got from the Volkswagen diesel cheating scandal settlement to help the Port of Virginia purchase two electric container cranes and a number of electric drayage vehicles to move freight around within the port facility.
$10 million from the state of Virginia grant will be matched by the Port of Virginia to buy two cranes from China’s Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries. The order is expected to be placed this fall and it should take about 18 months for them to arrive and be installed.
Source: coastalnewstoday
