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WILMINGTON – From trucks to cranes to fleet vehicles, a number of vehicles are needed to keep the state’s ports in Wilmington and Morehead City fully operational.

With that in mind, port leaders are working to clean up their industry.

"We recognized our obligation of being environmental stewards for our community as well as our employees,” said Tom Eagar, CEO of the N.C. State Ports Authority.

Their green initiatives started when they replaced over 1,100 warehouse light fixtures with high-energy efficient lighting. But a major concern for the ports is their diesel emissions, as the ports use approximately 250,000 gallons of diesel a year.

"At 250,000 gallons, and let’s use a figure of an average of maybe $4 a gallon, that's probably $1 million that we spend on diesel fuel on an annual basis,” said Eagar.

To help reduce the ports’ fuel usage and diesel emission, leaders are looking into a pluggable hybrid electric terminal tractor. During an 8-hour shift, the piece of equipment runs on electricity for four hours and diesel on the other four.

"The horse power range that we put in this, we've seen 50 percent fuel reductions, you're running a 40 horsepower engine versus a 200 horsepower engine, so therefore you reduce fuel consumption, reduce emissions,” said Phillip Ford, president of Capacity of Texas.

In the meantime, the ports are already reducing their fuel usage with a container handling machine that now used a lubricant called BioBlend instead of petroleum. The ports have been using the product for about nine months.

In the next two months they hope to have all the machines converted. That would reduce their use of fuel by about 40 percent.

"The reasons to use these products: are they work, they work well, they perform,” said Sam Burkett of BioBlend Renewable Resources.. “The second thing is it benefits the environment … you hope to never spill anything but when you do spill something you want low toxicity. And the last thing is national security because you’re reducing the amount of petroleum that your using.”