PERC presents Port of Newark with 2024 Energy for Everyone Hero Award

Tucker Perkins, right, president and CEO of the Propane Education & Research Council, presents Jim Pelliccio, president and CEO of the Port Newark Container Terminal, with the Energy for Everyone Hero Award. (Photo by LP Gas staff)

The Propane Education & Research Council (PERC) presented the Port Newark Container Terminal (PNCT) with the Energy for Everyone Hero Award for implementing port tractors powered by propane.

Even before this undertaking, the PNCT already used propane in part of its operations, chiefly in its forklifts. Because PNCT used propane, it had a propane retailer to work with for this expansion – Suburban Propane.

The PNCT replaced 20 of its diesel-powered tractors with propane-powered units, plans to replace 20 more by the end of the year and will phase out the final five diesel-fueled units in 2025. When the transition is complete, the port will have 45 propane tractors and zero diesel tractors.

PNCT chose propane and its clean-burning properties out of a desire to lower its emissions and create a healthier environment for its employees. The port’s operators run the tractors seven days a week, 16 hours a day.

When Tucker Perkins, president and CEO of PERC, spoke at the event in Newark, New Jersey, he emphasized the benefits of switching from diesel to propane, citing that propane is better for the environment, for workers, for the community and for the port’s finances.

Perkins explained that workers come home healthier after their shifts when they work with propane because of its lower emissions. Additionally, the port is realizing cost benefits with the new tractors.

“These tractors cost 40 percent less than their electric counterparts,” Perkins said at the event.

In presenting the award to Jim Pelliccio, president and CEO of PNCT, Perkins commended the courage that it took for the port to break the status quo and move on from diesel. Pelliccio thanked the Port Authority; PERC; the International Longshoremen’s Association; Ras Baraka, the mayor of Newark; and Steve Kaminski of the National Propane Gas Association.

Pelliccio emphasized the work that went into the propane project and PNCT’s desire to continue expanding.

“We must move forward with change,” he said.

Mike Bozza, deputy director of the Port Authority, also spoke at the event, saying the Port Authority’s goal is to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions entirely by 2050. In the meantime, he says, the goal is to reduce emissions by 50 percent by 2030.

“It’s about our community … being able to live in cleaner air,” he said.

LP Gas will have full coverage of PNCT’s use of propane in the September issue.

PERC also recently presented Fisher Vineyards in California and Broward County Transit in Florida with 2024 Energy for Everyone Hero Awards.