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L.A., Long Beach ports’ seed money program earns environmental honors

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The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have received a 2010 Environmental Achievement Award from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Pacific Southwest Region office.

The ports were given the clean-air technology award, a category that covers the ‘development, commercialization, or deployment of new technologies that advance the state of the art to achieve significant air-emission reductions of criteria pollutants in highly impacted communities,’ according to the EPA.

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The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, which sit side by side in San Pedro harbor and rank first and second in the U.S., respectively, in the number of cargo containers they move, won because of their Technology Assistance Program.

The TAP program had awarded more than $5.3 million in seed money between November 2006 and September to assist the development of lower-emissions technology, such as the first hybrid tugboat that runs on a diesel and electric engine system. The tug was built by Foss Maritime.

Most recently, the TAP Advisory Committee recommended approval of a demonstration project for a scrubber designed to greatly reduce toxic emissions from a ship’s boiler and auxiliary engines.

“Our Technology Advancement Program is an excellent example of what can be achieved when entities join forces and embrace innovation to better the environment,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Geraldine Knatz.

Her counterpart, Long Beach port Executive Director Richard Steinke, said, “We’ve nurtured some of the most exciting new air-pollution-control technology in the world with the Technology Advancement Program –- hybrid tugboats, energy-saving cranes, natural gas trucks … and more is on the way.’

Businesses looking for funding partners on promising clean-air technology products that could be employed by the ports can go to the TAP website to find out more.

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-- Ronald D. White

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