Trump’s funding freeze ‘suspended’ millions for electric cranes at Philly’s port. Now the money is available again.

As the Trump administration tries to pause trillions of dollars in federal spending — and courts weigh scores of lawsuits — state and local officials have been scrambling to assess the impact.

And sometimes, they’ve been pleasantly surprised to find a favorite program has survived the ax — for now, at least.

Consider the Port of Philadelphia, where an $80 million grant authorized by the Biden administration for new electric cranes and other zero-emission equipment seemed to be on the chopping block until this week.

When President Donald Trump last month ordered a freeze on billions of dollars in climate spending, it appeared to pause the Philadelphia grant, which was part of a $3 billion program announced in October by the Biden-era Environmental Protection Agency for dozens of ports across the country.

The Clean Ports Program — pitched as a way to fight climate change, reduce air pollution, and support jobs — was included in the Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed by Congress in 2022 and signed into law by President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Trump, a Republican, on his first day in office signed an executive order pausing the disbursement of certain funds appropriated through that law, saying “burdensome and ideologically motivated regulations” in recent years have “impeded the development” of America’s natural resources.

At the time, officials at the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, a state agency known as PhilaPort that owns the city’s seaport facilities, checked a U.S. Treasury account in which the grant funding had been deposited. The account said the grant’s status had been “suspended,” said Ryan Mulvey, PhilaPort’s director of government affairs.

The port authority reached out to the EPA, which told the agency it would look into the matter but has yet to provide any guidance, Mulvey said, adding that he also contacted U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D., Pa.). At PhilaPort’s board meeting on Wednesday, officials said the port authority planned to issue requests for proposals for the cranes later this quarter.

Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order — in a section titled “Terminating the Green New Deal” — gave federal agencies 90 days to review various grants and contracts.

“We’re hoping at the end of this 90-day review period the funds will be released, and we’ll be able to move forward, maybe with some modifications to the grant terms,” Brian Gocial, PhilaPort’s director of procurement and deputy chief counsel, said during the board meeting.

By the end of the day Wednesday, something had changed. EPA spokesperson Molly Vaseliou told The Inquirer in a statement that the agency had “worked expeditiously to enable payment accounts” for grant recipients of funding authorized under the Inflation Reduction Act and another Biden-era law, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Vaseliou added that “funding is now accessible to all recipients.”

When PhilaPort checked the Treasury account Thursday morning, the grant’s “suspended” status had been lifted, Mulvey said. “Everything seems fine,” he said, adding that the real test will come in a few months when PhilaPort tries to draw down funds from the account.

Scanlon, whose congressional district includes port facilities in South Philadelphia, said she’s been in touch with PhilaPort since the grant was frozen and is “glad to see those funds were made accessible this morning.”

“The Port of Philadelphia is a critical driver of good-paying jobs for our region and a vital gateway for goods and passengers across the country,” she said in a statement.

PhilaPort plans to use about half the grant funding — $46 million — to buy two ship-to-shore electric container cranes for the Tioga Marine Terminal in Port Richmond. They would replace diesel-powered cranes that have been in use for 50 years, Mulvey said. PhilaPort owns the terminal and leases it to Delaware River Stevedores.

As a backup plan for the cranes, Mulvey said, PhilaPort requested funding from the state as part of its five-year capital plan.

Mulvey said the port authority plans to spend an additional $31 million on other port equipment such as zero-emission forklifts and yard tractors.