Clean Ports

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The Port of Oakland is West Oakland’s top polluter. Now, the Port has an ambitious new project to get off dirty diesel and transition to zero-emission electric trucks and equipment. 

We’re training and educating West Oaklanders to continue the decades-long fight for a cleaner Port.

Fighting Port pollution

The Port of Oakland is the fifth busiest port on the West Coast. It’s a huge economic center, but it also floods West Oakland with dirty diesel emissions from trucks, trains, and cargo handling equipment.

It’s not just a West Oakland issue: from Long Beach to Newark, communities near ports deal with higher rates of cancer, asthma, and other illnesses.

Our seminal West Oakland Community Action Plan (WOCAP) includes thirty seven strategies to target port and shipping pollution, from upgrading tugboat engines to minimizing truck idling. Our efforts are working: thanks to a combination of statewide regulations and community-wide advocacy, Diesel Particulate Matter (DPM) fell by 31% between 2017 and 2024.

But we still have a long way to go to eliminate air quality disparities in West Oakland–and the Port’s DPM emissions are actually projected to rise slightly by 2029, taking us in the wrong direction.

Clean Ports is bringing $322 million of clean technology to the Port of Oakland

Now, there are cleaner alternatives to diesel. Clean Ports is a four-year project to help the Port of Oakland transition to non-polluting, zero-emission equipment.

Here’s what’s coming by 2028:

• Zero-emission equipment. Clean Ports will replace 475 trucks and 188 pieces of cargo handling equipment (forklifts, yard tractors, and other equipment used within the Port) with zero-emission alternatives. That’s about 35% of their total cargo handling equipment, and about 23% of the 2,000 trucks that visit the Port every day.
• Workforce training. Clean Ports will create up to 200 new jobs. The Port is partnering with local workforce development organizations to help Oakland’s workers find employment in the zero-emission economy.
• Fenceline air monitoring. For the first time ever, the Port will set up air monitors around the boundaries of their property to give a clearer picture of what emissions are leaving the Port and entering the community. WOEIP is serving on the selection committee for a contractor to install air monitors, and we expect to see air monitoring in place by early 2027.

Clean Ports is funded by $322 million from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). The Port and their terminal operators (the shipping companies that rent land from the Port) are kicking in another $145 million.

Clean Ports includes three other nonprofit partners alongside WOEIP: West Oakland Cultural Action Network, Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment, and Black Cultural Zone.

Building your capacity to advocate for a safer Port

The Port is getting cleaner thanks to decades of advocacy and direct engagement from West Oakland residents. We’re growing our local environmental justice movement by providing free training and education about the Port and its impacts on the neighborhood. 

Our goal is to empower local residents to advocate for a healthier, safer environment at the Port and beyond. 

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