State awards millions for project to clean up dirty trucks that serve Port of Long Beach, Los Angeles. The State of California Tuesday announced it is awarding $23.6 million to the South Coast Air Quality Management District for a statewide “zero-emission” demonstration project to clean up dirty trucks servicing ports and rail yards along busy freight corridors.

The funds, from the California Climate Investments program, will be used to reduce smog-forming pollutants, greenhouse gases, petroleum usage and toxic pollution in neighborhoods near busy trade hubs, according to the California Air Resources Board.

“This is good news – and cleaner air – for all Californians, but especially those who live in neighborhoods next to these industrial facilities or along some of our state’s busiest trade corridors,” Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary D. Nichols said in a statement.

The funds will target port-adjacent, disadvantaged communities in the Long Beach-Los Angeles area, San Joaquin Valley, Oakland, San Diego and West Sacramento.

The funds will pay for 43 zero-emission battery electric and plug-in hybrid drayage trucks to serve the port areas, according to the board. The companies that will receive funds include BYD, Kenworth, Peterbilt and Volvo.

Freight transport in California is a major economic engine, but also accounts for about half of toxic diesel particulate matter, 45 percent of the emissions that form ozone and fine particulate matter in the atmosphere, and 6 percent of all (greenhouse gases) emissions in California, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The grant award is part of a larger statewide investment in low-carbon transportation projects that are “pivotal to meeting California’s ambitious goals to reduce GHG emissions, improve air quality, deploy zero-emission vehicles and reduce petroleum dependency by accelerating the development and deployment of advanced vehicle technologies,” the air agency said in a statement.