The Port of Long Beach has approved a package of new clean air measures, including enhanced incentives to attract the cleanest oceangoing vessels, just days after Republican lawmakers in Washington moved to strip California of its authority to mandate shipping emissions rules.

The port's Board of Harbor Commissioners voted unanimously on August 10 in favor of the "CAAP Plus" measures, developed jointly with the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), which approved them on August 7. The Port of Los Angeles board is scheduled to vote on the same measures on August 13.

The three strategies include enhancements to the ports' existing green ship incentive programmes, which reward the cleanest vessels calling at the San Pedro Bay complex, alongside $40 million in new funding for a regionwide zero-emissions truck charging network and an additional truck deployment incentive scheme.

The approval comes against a backdrop of mounting federal pressure on California's shipping emissions regulations. As Ship & Bunker previously reported, Republican lawmakers last week filed resolutions in Congress under the Congressional Review Act to overturn the federal waivers underlying California's At-Berth shore power rule and its renewable diesel mandate for harbor craft.

The At-Berth rule requires certain vessel types — including container, refrigerated-cargo, and cruise ships — to reduce emissions while docked at California ports, primarily by connecting to shore-side electricity or using equivalent capture-and-control technology. The rule is one of the few state-level mandates of its kind in the United States, and its potential reversal would remove a regulatory tool that ports in the San Pedro Bay complex, the nation's busiest container gateway, have relied on for emissions control.

However, the Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) is voluntary and therefore untouched by the waiver dispute, meaning incentive programmes of this kind could end up carrying more of the responsibility for emissions reductions if the state's mandatory rules are struck down.

The ports say the plan has delivered reductions of 90% in diesel particulate matter, 68% in nitrogen oxides, and 98% in sulphur oxides from port-related sources since 2005.

"As we prepare to handle 20 million TEUs by 2050, we are building the Port of the Future — a 100% zero-emissions port," Dr Noel Hacegaba, CEO of the Port of Long Beach, said in a statement. "This new set of clean-air strategies strengthens our commitment, accelerates the zero-emissions transition and ensures cleaner air across the South Coast Air Basin."

The South Coast Air Basin, which spans Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties and is home to more than 17 million residents, has historically recorded some of the highest ozone and particulate pollution levels in the United States, a factor that has driven the region's air quality agencies to pursue aggressive emissions reductions from port operations and goods-movement activities.

The vote coincided with the start of Steven Neal's one-year term as president of the port's harbor commission. Neal pledged to advance the port's plan to double cargo throughput to 20 million TEUs annually by 2050 while becoming a fully zero-emissions seaport.

Neal pointed to the port's growing use of electricity, hydrogen, and methanol for clean energy, and noted its recent partnership with the US Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration (MARAD) to develop operational, safety, and security standards for deploying nuclear energy in port operations.

"As global trade continues to expand and the demand for reliable, clean energy grows, we have an opportunity to lead — not simply by adapting to change, but by helping shape it," Neal said.

The new measures form an addendum to the Cooperative Agreement between the two ports and SCAQMD adopted last December. The first phase of the ports' zero-emissions infrastructure plans is expected in spring 2027.

Long Beach currently operates 102 charging stations, which it says is the most of any US seaport, with 92 more scheduled to come online later this year.