Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
Seaports in the United States have long needed to improve their disastrous carbon footprints, so it is exciting that the change is finally happening. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach—the two busiest ports in the country—used to produce some 100 tons of smog every day, more than the daily emissions of about six million cars in California. Most of those emissions came from heavy-duty fossil fuel-based trucks used to move containers to ships and warehouses.
About one year ago, California mandated phasing out all fossil fuel-based trucks from the Ports by 2035, causing the Ports to slowly start embracing electric options. Now companies such as the investment firm BlackRock Inc. (BLK.N), and real estate firm CBRE Group (CBRE.N), and warehouse giant Prologis Inc. (PLD.N) see an investment opportunity around charging stations. They have mapped out to invest over $1 billion to build charging stations in the Ports and along freight routes. The California Energy Commission (CEC) has estimated that the state needs to install up to 157,000 medium and heavy-duty chargers by 2030 to meet its clean-energy target. So the race is now on!
