MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. — Three massive container ships were being serviced Saturday afternoon at the South Carolina Ports Authority Wando Welch Terminal as Administrator Lee Zeldin watched and spoke with port officials about how grant funding opportunities can assist operations.
“The operations here at the port rely on different infrastructure that over the course of years goes through next generation,” Zeldin said. “And it’s the next generation of engine, the next generation of equipment and federal funding opportunities allow the port to be able to expedite that pursuit of that innovation, that technology, that opportunity of the future.”
In 2019, South Carolina Ports received a $2 million grant from the EPA’s Diesel Emissions Reduction Act grant program to upgrade the engines of 12 rubber-tired gantry cranes, which place and retrieve containers from the yard. The new hybrid engines reduced emissions and annual diesel consumption by more than 100,000 gallons…