San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced a $55 million grant awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the Port of San Francisco and San Francisco Bay Ferry to complete the nation’s first-ever high-speed zero-emission ferry network connecting critical transportation hubs.
The funding from the EPA’s Clean Ports Program will help build out a zero-emission network that connects the communities served by SF Bay Ferry, including Oakland, Richmond, Vallejo, and Alameda with financial and biotech employment centers.
The projects under SF Bay Ferry’s Rapid Electric Emission-Free Ferry Program “will accelerate a new standard for clean ferries nationwide and serve as a training platform for the Bay Area’s maritime workforce development program,” a news release said.
Specifically, the funding will support:
- Electrification infrastructure at the Downtown San Francisco Ferry Terminal;
- Construction of a high-speed 400-passenger zero-emission vessel;
- Building a new ferry terminal in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood; and
- A regional maritime workforce development program.
Ferry ridership in the Bay Area doubled during the 2010s and has been rebounding strongly since 2021.
The investments in electrification infrastructure give the Port and SF Bay Ferry “a unique opportunity to deliver transformative change in the transportation sector, which accounts for almost 50 percent of emissions in San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Climate Action Plan.”
The EPA grant will support cutting emissions from the transportation sector and improving the health of nearby communities by converting to zero-emission electric ferry service from diesel-powered vessels, the news release said.
“At the SFPUC, clean power is fundamental to what we do,” said SFPUC General Manager Dennis Herrera. "We have been generating greenhouse gas-free power for the City for more than 100 years. So partnering on the first zero-emissions electric ferry network in the United States was a no-brainer for us.”
He said the SFPUC “is proud to contribute $13.6 million in matching funds to complete the upgrades needed to meet this project’s charging needs. We’re looking forward to clean Hetch Hetchy power and our other renewable energy sources powering these zero-emission ferries and helping all of San Francisco reach its clean energy goals, including net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.”
Projects like this “just underscore the importance of San Francisco buying the local electric grid so that we can control our clean energy future. That way we can ensure that all San Franciscans benefit from the advantages of public power, which is cleaner, more affordable, and more reliable than PG&E,” he said.
San Francisco Bay Ferry carried 2.2 million passengers in 2023 on the nation's cleanest high-speed, high-capacity ferry fleet. Thirteen of the agency's 17 vessels meet U.S. EPA Tier 4 emission standards and the agency has committed to convert 66 percent of its vessel fleet to zero emissions by 2035. In 2023, the agency completed its Blueprint for Zero-Emission Vessel Transition to inform development of a plan to transition the fleet to zero-emission vessels.
The grant includes funding to support a maritime workforce development program operated by the Working Waterfront Coalition that will train more than 200 apprentices. The Working Waterfront Coalition is an industry-led workforce development initiative that includes unions, workforce boards, and community groups, aiming to establish a skilled workforce pipeline and address the shortage of maritime professionals crucial for the operation and expansion of comprehensive regional ferry service.
The EPA grant provides funding that leverages more than $115 million from other local, state, and federal sources. Those funding sources include Regional Measure 3, CalSTA Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program, FTA Rapid Electric Emission-Free Ferry funding, City and County of San Francisco Capital Funds, San Francisco Sales Tax, and private funding.
