Clean Ports Program: Grantee Resources

Reminder

The next Clean Ports Program semi-annual progress report is due July 30, 2026. This report should include all grant activities conducted between January 1 – June 30, 2026.

Once complete, please send your progress report to your EPA Project Officer and cleanports@epa.gov.

On this page:

Documents for Grantees

Project Reporting Templates and Resources

Scrappage and Technology Deployment Documentation

Quality Assurance Project Plan and Activity Data Reporting Guides

Other Documents

  • Clean Ports Program Utility Partnership Agreement Final (pdf) (1022.58 KB, September 2025)
  • EPA Grants General Terms and Conditions (Requirements apply in addition to specific programmatic terms and conditions in each grant award document) Note: The EPA General Terms and Conditions apply to Clean Ports grants as written at the time of award. Amendments to the grant agreement may result in modifications to the terms and conditions (e.g., see details about March and April 2025 updates to the latest EPA General Terms and Conditions). Please reach out to your EPA Project Officer for more detail.

Questions and Answers

If you have additional questions, please email cleanports@epa.gov.

For questions related to the Clean Ports Program Build America Buy America requirements or waiver, please see the BABA section below.

Training and Technical Resources for Grantees

Build America, Buy America Act

The Build America, Buy America Act strengthens Made in America Laws and will bolster America’s industrial base, protect national security, and support high-paying jobs.

For details on what BABA is and how to implement it for your Clean Ports grant project, please refer to the Office of Transportation and Air Quality BABA webpage.

If you have additional questions related to the Clean Ports Program Build America Buy America requirements or waiver, please email BABA-OTAQ@epa.gov.

Clean Ports Program General Applicability BABA Waiver

After consideration of public comments and in consultation with federal agency partners, EPA issued a targeted, time-limited Public Interest General Applicability Waiver of BABA provisions for certain zero emissions mobile port equipment purchased under the Clean Ports Program. EPA believes that the limited scope and duration of this proposed waiver incentivizes manufacturers to invest in increasing domestic production capacity, while helping to ensure a sufficient supply of mobile port equipment available for Clean Ports Program projects in the near-term.

The waiver applies to certain Clean Ports Program grantee expenditures for zero emission mobile port equipment that meets each of the following criteria:

  • the contracted order date for the equipment is on or before December 31, 2027;
  • the contracted delivery date for the equipment is on or before December 31, 2028;
  • and the equipment is delivered no later than July 1, 2029.
  • NOTE: yard trucks and ship-to-shore cranes have different timelines than other equipment covered by the domestic content waiver provision. See details in the "55 Percent Domestic Content Waiver Provision" section of the waiver.

Applicants to the ZE Technology Deployment Competition were able to consider these waiver provisions, if applicable, when describing their domestic sourcing implementation plans in the Project Summary section of their workplans (Section 1.a.) and technology availability in the Risk Mitigation section of their workplans (Section 1.d.).

Project-level waivers remain an option for grant recipients should the provisions established by this waiver prove inadequate.

You can view the final waiver on EPA’s Approved BABA Waivers page.

You can view questions and answers about the final waiver in the document below. If you have any additional questions about the waiver, please contact BABA-OTAQ@epa.gov.

Key elements of the finalized BABA waiver are as follows:

55% Domestic Content Waiver Provision

The waiver allows Clean Ports Program grantees to purchase certain types of zero-emissions mobile port equipment that does not meet the 55% domestic content BABA requirement. This equipment must still be manufactured in the United States.

Equipment Covered by the 55% Content Waiver Provision

The following zero-emission mobile port equipment is covered by the 55% domestic content waiver provision described above:

  • Zero emission cranes:
    • Rubber tire gantry cranes
    • Mobile harbor cranes
    • Rail-mounted gantry cranes
    • Stacking cranes
    • Ship-to-shore cranes (note that the domestic content waiver provision for this equipment is more limited than others; please see for more details "55 Percent Domestic Content Waiver Provision" section of the waiver)
  • Other zero emission cargo handling equipment (with the exception of equipment types listed below that are excluded from this waiver provision):
    • Bulk cargo handling equipment
    • Containerized cargo handling equipment
    • Straddle Carriers
    • Mobile shore power cable management systems
  • Zero emission class 3-8 vehicles:
    • Drayage trucks
    • Yard trucks (also known as terminal tractors, yard tractors, or yard hostlers)
  • Zero emission locomotives:
    • Switch locomotives
  • Zero emission vessels:
    • Tugboats
    • Push boats
    • Pull boats
    • Ferries

Equipment Excluded from the 55% Content Waiver Provision

The zero-emission cargo handling equipment that are not covered by the waiver of 55% domestic content requirement are:

  • Battery electric (BE) heavy forklifts 36,000lbs 24” & 48” Load Center (L.C.)
  • BE heavy forklifts 55,000lbs 48” L.C.
  • BE heavy forklifts 65,000lbs 48” L.C.
  • BE heavy forklifts 92,500lbs 48” L.C.
  • BE heavy forklifts 100,000lbs 48” L.C.
  • BE loaded top-pick container handler (up to 6-high-stack and 90,000lbs)
  • BE empty side-pick container handler (up to 8-high stack and 20,000lbs)
  • BE reach stacker (up to 5-high stack and 99,000lbs)

Supplemental De Minimis Waiver Provision

EPA is also finalizing a supplemental de minimis waiver provision, which waives BABA compliance requirements for 15 percent (%) of the material costs associated with the purchase of mobile zero emissions port equipment. This provision does not apply to cranes.

EPA’s existing public interest De Minimis waiver (pdf) (2.9 MB) allows up to 5% of total project costs to be used on items that are not required to demonstrate compliance with BABA requirements; this existing 5% waiver will remain applicable to the Clean Ports Program. EPA is now also waiving BABA requirements for an additional 15% of the total material costs associated with zero emission mobile port equipment (other than cranes) purchased under the Clean Ports Program that do not meet domestic manufacturing requirements (i.e., are not domestically manufactured and do not meet domestic content requirements for manufactured products).

The EPA encourages grant recipients to seek out domestic suppliers prior to using the supplemental de minimis to maximize the use of domestic equipment.

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Last updated on February 3, 2026