NEW ORLEANS – Local short-haul truck owners operating within the Port of New Orleans will soon be eligible to apply for financial incentives to replace older model year trucks with 2011 or newer models.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently awarded the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans a $727,000 Clean Diesel grant for the Port’s voluntary Clean Truck Replacement Incentive Program, or Clean TRIP. The grant will assist short-haul and drayage truck owners servicing Port cargo terminals and warehouses within the Port’s three-parish jurisdiction, enabling them to replace older truck models between 1993 and 2006 with model year 2011 or newer through a cost share program.
“This program will enable truck owners to voluntarily invest in cleaner air by replacing older trucks,” said Port President and CEO Gary LaGrange. “It will also enable us to initiate a community dialogue around air quality and opportunities for improvement.”
The Port’s Environmental Department, led by Amelia Pellegrin, will develop, lead, implement and manage the program, including developing a fair and transparent application process. The total project cost is $1.537 million, with $700,000 coming from mandatory cost share with eligible truck owners and $110,636 coming from the Port for administrative costs. Key local partners in the two-year program include the Regional Planning Commission, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, University of New Orleans and the Environmental Defense Fund.
“We received strong support from our Congressional delegation, as well as our local and State partners,” LaGrange said. “We hope the success of this program will lead to future grant awards to expand the initiative.”
Port officials and partners will now work to develop and implement the program and will initiate community outreach efforts with the trucking industry in the spring.
The Port of New Orleans is a deep-draft multipurpose port at the center of the world’s busiest port system — Louisiana’s Lower Mississippi River. Connected to major inland markets and Canada via 14,500 miles of waterways, six class-1 railroads and the interstate highway system, the Port is the ideal gateway for steel, project cargo, containers, coffee, natural rubber, chemicals, forest products, manufactured goods and cruising.
An extensive network of ocean carrier services, along with added-value services like transloading of bulk into containers, make the Port of New Orleans the superior logistics solution for many types of cargo. To stay ahead of market demand, the Port has invested more than $100 million in capital-improvement projects since 2012 and has a Master Plan to expand the Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal to an annual capacity of 1.5 million TEUs.