In a visit Tuesday to the Port of Baltimore, President Joe Biden announced that his administration is awarding nearly $3 billion to boost climate-friendly equipment and infrastructure at ports across the country.

Biden also said he is committed to securing federal money for the construction of a new bridge to replace the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed in March and killed six construction workers.

“I’m calling on Congress to fully fund it by the end of this year,” he said.

White House officials said the federal funding announced Tuesday will improve and electrify port infrastructure at 55 sites nationwide while supporting an estimated 40,000 union jobs, reducing pollution and combating the climate crisis.

“For too long, they’ve run on fossil fuels and aging infrastructure, putting workers and at risk, exposing nearby communities to dangerous pollution,” Biden said in Baltimore.

Speaking after other elected officials including Maryland Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, Biden touted his administration’s $13 billion in spending on about 1,000 infrastructure, energy and manufacturing projects in the state.

The president said he supports protecting longshoremen and port-related jobs from artificial intelligence and robots — a nod to a recent dockworker strike at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports. Though the longshoremen and port management reached a deal and ports reopened, the automation issues haven’t been resolved.

The presidential visit, a week before Election Day, is intended to highlight efforts by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to promote clean energy while protecting and creating good-paying union jobs.

The Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest on the East Coast, is a major hub for the import and export of motor vehicles and farm equipment. More than 20,000 workers support daily port operations, including unionized longshoremen and truckers.

Grants announced Tuesday include $147 million for the Maryland Port Administration. The funds will support over 2,000 jobs by enabling the purchase and installation of cargo-handling equipment and trucks to transition the port into a zero-greenhouse-gas-emission facility.

The Maryland port is among 55 ports across 27 states and territories that will receive nearly $3 billion through the Clean Ports Program administered by the Environmental Protection Agency. Ports receiving money include the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Detroit-Wayne County Port Authority, the ports of Savannah and Brunswick, Georgia, as well as Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Oakland, California.

The grants are funded by Biden’s landmark climate law approved in 2022, the largest investment in clean energy in U.S. history.

The grant announcements, which follow $31 million in federal funds to rehabilitate a section of Baltimore’s Dundalk Marine Terminal, come a week after the owner and manager of the cargo ship that caused the deadly bridge collapse agreed to pay more than $102 million in cleanup costs to settle a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department.

The settlement does not cover any damages for rebuilding the bridge, a project that could cost close to $2 billion. The state of Maryland has filed its own claim seeking those damages, among others.

Funding though the Clean Ports program will slash more than 3 million metric tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to energy use by nearly 400,000 homes for one year, Regan said. It also will cut 12,000 short tons of nitrogen oxides and other harmful pollutants, he said.

John Podesta, senior adviser to the president for international climate policy, said the grants will help fulfill a promise by Biden and Harris to “rebuild our nation’s infrastructure and tackle the climate crisis ... and uplift the communities who’ve borne the brunt of pollution.”

In February, the EPA announced two separate funding opportunities for U.S. ports, a competition to directly fund zero-emission equipment and infrastructure and a separate competition for climate change and air-quality programs. More than $8 billion in requests from applicants across the country were received.

Vernice Miller-Travis, a longtime advocate for environmental justice, hailed the EPA grants, which come after years of complaints by environmental and public health leaders that harmful pollution from the nation’s ports too often was overlooked.

“What an incredible moment this is,” she said. “Fifty-five projects, almost $3 billion in funding. This is real money. And we know when you see these kinds of investments that you can really make transformation in local conditions and local operations and in people’s lives.”