The Problem

International shipping moves the global economy, but it burns huge quantities of fossil fuel and pollutes the air in every port community where ships dock. The sector is one of the hardest in the economy to decarbonize because the ships themselves typically last 20–30 years. The technology to convert the fleet to cleaner fuels is ready, and the rest of the world is racing to deploy it. Meanwhile, American shipbuilding, the industry that helped define the WWII industrial mobilization, has stepped out of the race entirely.

The global commercial fleet of roughly 112,500 vessels burns close to 300 million tonnes of fuel oil every year and emits nearly three percent of global CO₂, roughly the entire annual emissions footprint of Japan. That same fuel pumps out a disproportionate share of the world's sulfur, nitrogen oxides, and particulate pollution, concentrated in the port communities where ships dock. Tens of millions of Americans live close enough to a major U.S. port to breathe it. The fleet locks all of this in for decades. A vessel ordered today will still be sailing in 2055, and full fleet replacement runs on a roughly 25-to-30-year cycle even before counting today's depressed scrapping rates.

Most of the global fleet will need to be converted to cleaner fuels or face tightening emissions regulations they cannot meet. The global ship retrofit market is roughly $5–6.5 billion today and growing. Current retrofit capacity is concentrated in a handful of Chinese and Middle Eastern yards and falls far short of the well over 1,000 conversions per year that industry analysts project will be needed this decade.

American ports and the maritime commerce flowing through them support roughly $2.9 trillion in economic activity and 21.8 million jobs, by the American Association of Port Authorities' 2024 count. Yet the United States has zero presence in the market that builds and converts the ships that trade runs on. In 2023, China delivered 972 commercial ships. The United States delivered seven. U.S. yards hold only a handful of orders for large commercial vessels out of a global orderbook of more than 5,400. No American shipyard can build a large zero-emission vessel.

China holds more than 60 percent of the global shipbuilding orderbook and has led the industry in new orders across 14–16 of 18 major ship categories in recent years, with state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) commanding roughly 18 percent of the global orderbook and major Chinese yards heavily booked into the late 2020s. CSSC's commercial output in a single year now dwarfs anything U.S. yards have built in modern history. BYD, China's largest EV manufacturer, now operates a fleet of eight large car carriers. The flagship LNG-dual-fuel BYD Shenzhen, a 9,200-vehicle ship with onboard energy storage, hauls Chinese EVs into Brazil and across the Americas on Chinese-built hulls financed by Chinese state capital.

Meanwhile, the federal government has stepped back from clean shipping. The April 2025 executive order "Restoring America's Maritime Dominance" told agencies to draw up a maritime plan and to push back on climate rules at the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations body that sets the rules for global shipping. The administration argued those rules put American yards at a disadvantage. The July 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) let shipyards write off the full cost of new equipment right away, an ordinary tax break any factory can claim, and set aside no money specifically for clean ships. The February 2026 America's Maritime Action Plan (AMAP) went further, with a proposed trust fund for the merchant fleet, a program to rebuild U.S.-flagged commercial shipping, more federal loans for shipbuilders, and a fee on every foreign-built ship that enters an American port. The plan is aimed at conventional shipbuilding for defense and trade and leaves clean shipping out. The administration also cut federal support for the clean fuels those ships need. And in October 2025, the United States led the campaign that delayed the IMO's plan to put a price on shipping's carbon emissions by a year, removing the strongest tool for pushing the global fleet toward cleaner fuels.

The Mission

The Mission for America will rebuild the nation's shipyards, convert the existing fleet to clean fuels, and electrify every major port, delivering American-built ships, clean air for the tens of millions of Americans who live beside the waterfront, and the lead in the worldwide shift to clean shipping. The work will put a new generation of welders, marine engineers, and shipfitters into high-wage careers and build an industrial base that keeps the country building ships for decades.

The Mission will start with retrofits. A ship can be converted to cleaner fuels in 80 to 90 days of shipyard time, and America will build the world's best retrofit industry by retooling existing shipyards and constructing new facilities designed for conversion work, giving shipyard workers lasting careers.

Those retrofitted ships will need fuel. Green ammonia and green methanol are the two pathways, with methanol ready to scale first and ammonia close behind. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) will finance production facilities at Gulf Coast ports and bunkering infrastructure at all major American ports so that clean fuel is the default option.

All 50 major American ports will electrify in parallel, with shore power at every dock, real grid capacity to deliver it, and cargo equipment that runs on electricity. The Mission will end the pollution affecting 31 million Americans in port communities on a binding timeline.

Finally, the United States will lead internationally, working with allies at the IMO, in bilateral clean-fuel agreements, and in setting standards for ammonia- and methanol-fueled vessels. The retrofit industry that dominates the U.S. domestic market will become an export advantage as global demand for conversions outpaces every other nation's capacity.

The RFC will finance all four. Current federal tools are built for small expansions and cannot finance an industrial rebuild. The RFC's toolkit for shipping will include 30-year shipyard retooling loans, Advanced Market Commitments that guarantee retrofit orders before yards invest, federal fleet procurement mandates, clean fuel production financing at Gulf Coast ports, and coordinated grid financing that breaks the utility interconnection bottleneck stalling port electrification. A Jones Act green mandate will turn the captive domestic shipping market into anchor demand for American retrofit yards and clean fuel producers. Congress will restore and expand refundable tax credits for alternative fuels for a decade, paired with RFC anchor demand.

The Two Clean Fuels

The clean fuels start with green hydrogen. Because hydrogen itself is too hard to store and handle at sea, it is converted into one of two carbon-free fuels, and the choice between them shapes the whole transition.

	Green methanol	Green ammonia
Feedstock	Green hydrogen + captured CO₂, which is supply-constrained	Green hydrogen + nitrogen from the air, effectively unlimited
Engines and retrofits	Commercial today, from MAN and Wartsila	1–2 years behind, first engines now on the water
Storage and handling	Liquid at room temperature, easy to bunker	Toxic, needs refrigeration or pressure
Main drawback	Not enough biogenic CO₂ to scale fleet-wide	Toxicity and nitrous oxide slip, both fixable
Best role	Deploy now	The scalable bet for the long haul

Solutions

Solution 1: Build the Clean Ships

The global fleet will age out far too slowly to meet the climate crisis on its own. Scrapping is at historic lows, with just 324 ships retired in 2024, the lowest figure since 2005, leaving a small single-digit share of the fleet turning over per decade at current rates. Even at historically normal scrapping rates, only 20–30 percent of fleet tonnage turns over in a decade. Waiting for the fleet to age out and be replaced by new green ships means waiting until the 2060s.

So the Mission will start by retrofitting the ships that already exist.

Ship retrofitting is proven technology. Maersk completed the first large container ship methanol conversion in 88 days in October 2024. Hapag-Lloyd and Seaspan agreed in 2024 to retrofit five container ships to methanol at roughly $24 million per ship, sitting inside a broader MAN Energy Solutions framework that covers up to 60 engine-retrofit solutions across their joint fleet. Stena Line pioneered ferry methanol conversion back in 2015 and is converting more. MAN Energy Solutions and Wartsila, the two dominant marine engine manufacturers, both offer retrofit kits for methanol and are developing ammonia capability for 2026.

A methanol retrofit costs $10–30 million per vessel. A new large commercial vessel costs $100 million or more. Ammonia retrofits are more complex and expensive, but the technology is on the water. WinGD delivered the first ammonia two-stroke engine in mid-2025, and MAN began full-scale testing of its ammonia engine in late 2024, with first commercial deployment expected by 2026.

The demand is structural and growing. If approved as proposed, IMO carbon intensity regulations will require a large share of ocean-going ships, likely half or more, to combine operational changes with physical retrofits to meet compliance by 2030. Global retrofit capacity is nowhere near the projected need, and American yards can fill the gap.

Build the yards. The RFC will finance the retooling of existing American shipyards and the construction of new facilities specifically designed for retrofit and conversion work. A yard that can strip a diesel engine and fuel system and install a dual-fuel methanol or ammonia powertrain does not need the massive graving docks required for hull construction from scratch. The RFC will provide 30-year, low-interest loans for yard development and use Advanced Market Commitments to guarantee a minimum volume of conversion orders, giving yard owners the confidence to invest before the ships arrive.

The United States has latent capacity to draw on. There are over 300 repair yards and 154 active private shipyards across 29 states, many with drydocks, cranes, pipe shops, and environmental permits already in place. Retooling an existing repair yard for retrofit work is substantially cheaper and faster than building a greenfield facility, which typically costs $500 million or more and takes 3–5 years. The goal is to scale this capacity up steadily, retooling yard after yard until American conversion rates first match and then exceed those of the Chinese and Middle Eastern facilities that dominate the market today. The first conversions will run slower than the global benchmark, but as processes standardize and crews gain experience, conversion times will fall toward 60 days and costs will come down with them. Within a decade, the United States will be a leading destination for ship retrofits worldwide.

Start with methanol, build toward ammonia. Methanol retrofits are commercially proven today. MAN and Wartsila both offer methanol retrofit kits. Ammonia retrofits are 1–2 years behind the methanol timeline described above. American retrofit yards will start on methanol conversions immediately, building workforce skills and experience, then add ammonia capability as the engine technology matures. As Solution 2 explains, ammonia has the better long-term physics (no CO₂ feedstock constraint), so yards will be designed from the start to handle both fuel types. The IMO approved interim safety guidelines for ammonia-fueled ships in December 2024, clearing the regulatory path.

Federal fleet first. The federal government operates hundreds of vessels across the Coast Guard, NOAA, Army Corps of Engineers, Military Sealift Command, and the Navy's non-combatant support fleet, all burning enormous amounts of diesel without needing to be nuclear-powered or combat-ready. Congress will mandate zero-emission propulsion for all new federal vessel procurement, and the RFC will finance the retrofit of the existing fleet, matching each vessel to the right clean technology. The large, long-range ships are candidates for green ammonia and methanol conversion, including Military Sealift Command's oilers, cargo, and supply ships, NOAA's ocean-going research vessels, and the biggest Coast Guard cutters. The smaller craft that run fixed near-shore routes and return to base each night, such as harbor tugs, patrol boats, buoy tenders, and survey launches, are better suited to battery electric. Dual-fuel retrofits on the liquid-fuel vessels are permitted only where green ammonia or methanol bunkering is not yet available, with a hard compliance date once it arrives. This creates guaranteed domestic demand that anchors the retrofit industry through its startup years.

Jones Act green mandate. Beginning five years after enactment, all new vessels operating under the Jones Act will be required to meet zero-emission fuel standards. The Jones Act fleet is captive domestic demand, and these ships must be built or retrofitted in American yards by law. The mandate comes paired with support. The RFC will finance the conversions with low-cost loans to the shipowners themselves as well as the yards, and the clean-fuel price guarantee described in Solution 2 will keep operating costs near today's bunker prices, so meeting the standard is affordable. The result is a guaranteed customer base for clean retrofit capacity.

The export play. As American retrofit capacity matures, foreign shipowners become customers. Ships from every flag state need conversion to meet tightening IMO regulations. Chinese shipyards are broadly booked through 2027–2028, and industry analysts identify this window as the critical period for locking in retrofit slots before a capacity shortfall emerges. The Middle East is emerging as a competitor. The United States can compete on quality, regulatory certainty, and proximity to the Western Hemisphere's shipping lanes.

New green builds grow from the retrofit base. Retrofit work trains the welders, marine engineers, electricians, and naval architects who will eventually build new ships from scratch. The RFC will fund new green vessel construction as domestic capability matures, starting with harbor craft and short-sea vessels and scaling up to larger ocean-going vessels as yards prove their capability. The path to a domestic shipbuilding industry that can compete globally runs through retrofits first.

America has lost almost all of its commercial shipbuilding. By BRS Shipbrokers' 2025 count, American yards are building just three of the 5,448 large commercial vessels on order worldwide, against China's 3,419. The retrofit business can retool existing private repair yards. Ocean-going shipbuilding may have to be rebuilt almost from scratch. The Mission's first move is to finance private yards willing to invest and compete at the speed it needs. Where private capacity does not appear fast enough, the Mission is prepared to charter public shipbuilding corporations, on the competing-public-corporation model the Homes and Buildings chapter uses, to run alongside private yards. The goal is getting ships in the water as fast as the country can manage.

Wind-assist retrofits. Wind propulsion is one of the few clean-shipping technologies that is already mature, affordable, and cutting fuel use today. Dozens of large vessels now sail with wind-assist systems, most commonly Flettner rotors, the spinning vertical cylinders that turn wind into forward thrust, with rigid sails and suction wings reaching the market alongside them. Real-world installations cut fuel burn by five to 30 percent depending on the route, with averages around 10 percent and more in strong, favorable winds. The technology stalls only because the industry's split incentives leave no single owner, charterer, or cargo holder able to capture the savings, a market failure the RFC is built to address. American retrofit yards will install wind-assist systems as standard conversion work, and the RFC will offer savings-backed financing so owners invest, adding to the order volume that sustains the retrofit hub.

Offshore wind installation fleet. The MFA administration will reverse the OBBBA's restrictions on offshore wind tax credits and finance a new class of zero-emission wind farm installation ships, cable-laying vessels, and crew transfer boats. The United States has one Jones Act-compliant offshore wind installation vessel, the Charybdis, built in Texas and now working off Virginia. Europe has dozens. Building these ships at American yards creates jobs, supports the offshore wind buildout that the Clean Power chapter requires, and adds to the order volume that sustains the retrofit and new-build industrial base.

Battery electric for harbor and short-sea. For harbor craft, ferries, and short-sea routes, battery electric is the right technology. North America already leads the global electric boat market with roughly a 47 percent share. The RFC will finance electric vessel procurement and charging infrastructure for these segments. This is the maritime equivalent of depot-based truck charging, with proven technology, predictable routes, and overnight charging.

Fishing fleet transition. The RFC will establish a dedicated team to help the commercial fishing industry transition to cleaner vessels. Fishing boats are numerous, small, and owned by independent operators who cannot finance conversions on their own. The RFC fishing team will provide low-cost loans, technical assistance, and group purchasing for electric and hybrid propulsion systems, starting with harbor and near-shore fleets. The full scope of fishing fleet modernization will be addressed in the Oceans chapter.

What this delivers: A globally competitive American ship retrofit industry converting hundreds of vessels per year. A Jones Act fleet transitioning to zero-emission fuels. Federal vessels leading by example. Electric harbor craft and ferries at scale on near-shore routes. A workforce and industrial base that grows into full-scale green shipbuilding. Foreign shipowners bringing their ships to American yards because demand exceeds global capacity.

Solution 2: Build the Clean Fuel Supply Chain

A retrofitted ship is only as clean as the fuel it burns. Most of the "alternative fuel" vessels on order today are dual-fuel designs that can run on either conventional bunker fuel or a cleaner alternative. The shipping industry's word for this is "optionality." In practice, it means these ships will burn fossil fuel until clean fuel is available and affordable at the ports where they dock. The Mission for America will build the supply chain that makes clean fuel the default. RFC retrofit programs, fuel production credits, and bunkering investment will be restricted to zero-emission pathways like green ammonia, green methanol, and battery electric.

The real clean-fuel orderbook is still small. By early 2026, a few hundred methanol-capable vessels were delivered or on order globally, with only several dozen actually in operation, and around 40 ammonia-capable vessels were on order as of August 2025. No ocean-going ship is in commercial service burning green ammonia. The first two ammonia-fueled ocean-going ships, built by HD Hyundai for EXMAR, entered service in mid-2026, and the first completed its maiden commercial voyage burning ammonia. Even the methanol fleet mostly runs on gray methanol or conventional bunker fuel because green methanol is not available at scale. Maersk, the world's largest container line, now runs more than 20 dual-fuel methanol ships, but most are running on gray methanol or conventional fuel because green methanol supply is constrained. In late 2024 the company added 20 LNG dual-fuel newbuilds to its fleet renewal alongside the methanol orders, signaling that hedging against a constrained green fuel supply chain had become unavoidable. If Maersk cannot get the fuel at scale, no one can without major public investment.

Methanol and ammonia compared. The two fuels have different strengths, and one difference will shape the long-term fuel mix.

Green methanol is ahead on infrastructure and engine readiness. It is a liquid at ambient temperature and pressure, making it far easier to store, handle, and bunker than ammonia. Methanol engines are commercially available today from MAN and Wartsila. Methanol bunkering exists at some major ports. Retrofits are proven (see Solution 1). Methanol can be deployed now.

But methanol has a structural weakness. It requires captured CO₂ as a feedstock. Making green methanol means combining green hydrogen with carbon dioxide. That CO₂ has to come from somewhere, and where it comes from determines whether methanol can scale.

Today, all commercial green methanol projects source their CO₂ from biogenic point sources like biogas upgrading plants, ethanol fermentation, and biomass combustion. This CO₂ is cheap ($30–80 per ton) and available. But the total global supply of easily captured biogenic CO₂ is roughly 320–370 million tonnes per year, concentrated across about 360 geographic clusters mostly in Europe and the Americas. Full conversion of the global shipping fleet to green methanol would require on the order of 500 million tonnes of CO₂ feedstock per year, well above the entire available biogenic supply. Aviation wants the same CO₂ for sustainable aviation fuel. Chemicals and cement want it too. There is not enough biogenic CO₂ to go around.

The alternative is direct air capture (DAC) of carbon in the atmosphere. DAC is stuck at $600–1,000 per ton of CO₂ captured. Operational global DAC capacity is still under 1 million tonnes per year even after the first large-scale plant came online in 2025. Projections of $200–400 per ton by 2035–2040 are considered optimistic. Even with strong support from the Mission, DAC will not close the gap in time.

Green ammonia avoids this problem. Ammonia is synthesized from green hydrogen and nitrogen. Nitrogen comes from air. There is no CO₂ bottleneck. The feedstock is unlimited. Ammonia's challenges are different. It is highly toxic, requires refrigeration or pressurization for storage, and ammonia engines are 1–2 years behind methanol engines in commercial readiness. Ammonia combustion also produces nitrous oxide slip (N₂O is roughly 265 times more potent than CO₂ as a greenhouse gas), but the fix is the marine version of a catalytic converter. A selective catalytic reduction unit scrubs the N₂O out of the exhaust. MAN Energy Solutions delivered the first SCR unit designed for a marine ammonia engine to Japan in early 2025. The onshore version of this technology has been standard industrial equipment for decades. Port authorities and regulators are also wary of ammonia's toxicity, which is a serious safety concern. But these are engineering and safety problems that can be solved.

The Mission for America will invest in both fuels, in sequence. Methanol is the right fuel for the early transition, with proven engines, proven retrofits, existing infrastructure, and available biogenic CO₂ at small scale. Ammonia is the right fuel for the long haul, with unlimited feedstock, no CO₂ dependency, and potentially lower cost at scale. The RFC will finance production, bunkering, and retrofit capability for both. Retrofit yards will be built to handle both methanol and ammonia conversions. As ammonia engine technology matures and safety protocols are established, the fuel mix will shift toward ammonia for the largest ocean-going vessels while methanol continues to serve segments where its handling advantages matter most.

Closing the cost gap. Neither fuel is cheap today. On an energy-equivalent basis, green fuels are roughly 3–5 times more expensive than conventional bunker fuel today (green fuels deliver less than half the energy per kilogram, so per-ton prices are misleading). The Mission will close that gap from both ends. Production tax credits and RFC financing pull the producer's cost down, and a clean-fuel price guarantee covers the rest for the operator. A shipowner that switches will pay a fuel price pegged to conventional bunker fuel, and the RFC will cover the spread to the green fuel's true cost, narrowing that subsidy year by year as scale brings the premium down. That makes burning clean fuel a sound business decision for operators.

Fuel production at the ports. The RFC will finance green ammonia and green methanol production facilities at Gulf Coast ports, where proximity to hydrogen production infrastructure and shipping lanes creates natural advantages. Maritime demand for green ammonia is already creating anchor demand for U.S. green hydrogen, shifting new production projects toward the Gulf Coast. The RFC will coordinate this with the Hydrogen chapter to ensure supply timelines align.

Bunkering infrastructure. The RFC will finance bunkering facilities at priority U.S. ports, starting with the highest-traffic ports and expanding outward. This includes ammonia and methanol storage, handling systems, and safety infrastructure. Ammonia bunkering requires stricter safety protocols than methanol (refrigerated storage, leak detection, exclusion zones). The bunkering buildout will be coordinated with the retrofit timeline so that ships converted at American yards can refuel at American ports.

Production tax credits for green marine fuels. Congress will restore and expand production tax credits for green hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol produced for marine use. Following the standard MFA credit design, these credits will be fully refundable and paid through direct pay, so producers without tax liability still get the full value, available for 10 years, and phasing down as scale closes the cost gap.

Onboard carbon capture. Some in the industry pitch capturing CO₂ from a ship's exhaust and storing it onboard for offloading at port. The approach bolts a chemical plant onto a moving vessel and carries a steep energy penalty, burning more fuel to run the capture gear. It also depends on a port-side network to receive, transport, and permanently store the captured carbon, and that network does not exist at scale anywhere. The Mission for America will put its money into clean fuels and electrification.

What this delivers: A domestic clean fuel supply chain anchored at Gulf Coast ports, starting with methanol and ramping ammonia as the technology matures. Bunkering infrastructure at major U.S. ports for both fuels. A sequenced approach that spreads the transition across two fuels with different feedstocks.

Solution 3: Electrify the Ports and End the Pollution Crisis

American ports drive the country's trade, produce enormous pollution, and are falling behind their global competitors. No U.S. port cracks the top tier of the World Bank's Container Port Performance Index, where ports in China, Japan, and South Korea dominate. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach alone emit roughly 100 tons of nitrogen oxides every day, on top of significant particulate matter and sulfur pollution. An estimated 31 million Americans live within roughly five kilometers of major U.S. ports, disproportionately low-income and communities of color, breathing this air. Most ports do not even monitor their air quality routinely. Comprehensive nationwide data is scarce because nobody is required to collect it.

Only about 10 major U.S. ports currently offer high-voltage commercial shore power, the technology that allows a docked ship to plug into the grid and shut off its diesel engines. Framed against the roughly 50 largest commercial ports by tonnage, that is roughly 20 percent. Federal grants are funding shore-power buildouts at additional ports through 2027, and California's CARB At-Berth rule has driven adoption on the West Coast. The EPA's Clean Ports Program has allocated nearly $3 billion in 2024, funding over 50 projects across 24 states and territories. But actual deployment faces 1-to-5-year delays because of a single bottleneck. Getting the ports connected to the electrical grid takes years.

Ports face the same grid problem as truck fleets. The demand, the funding, and the technology are all in place, but utilities cannot deliver the power in time. The RFC is designed to fix this kind of coordination failure.

Shore power mandate. Congress will require all 50 major U.S. ports to offer shore power within 10 years. The RFC will fund the buildout in full, so no port has to choose between clean air and its budget, and a federal port-electrification team will handle the engineering, procurement, and utility coordination for any port that needs it. Ports that move fastest will earn bonus federal investment in the surrounding waterfront, so port communities compete to move first.

Every port at once. Every major port will get shore power, equipment electrification, grid upgrades, and air quality monitoring at the same time. No port will wait for a pilot program to finish somewhere else. The RFC can finance every major port at once.

Dedicated port grid program. The grid gap is enormous. The Port of Long Beach alone needs several times its current electrical capacity for full electrification. Full electrification of the Port of Los Angeles will take 13 years on EPRI's roadmap. Large power transformers have 2-to-4-year lead times. New transmission lines take 7–10 years to permit and build. The EPA's $3 billion Clean Ports Program covers equipment at more than 50 projects, but the grid infrastructure for all 360 U.S. ports will cost tens of billions. No national estimate exists. The RFC and Clean Power Mission will jointly finance front-of-the-meter grid upgrades at every major port, including substations, transformers, distribution capacity, and interconnection. This will be a coordinated national program with binding utility timelines and advance procurement of long-lead equipment (transformers, switchgear), the same model the RFC will use for truck depot electrification. The grid program will start on Day One because it has the longest lead times in this chapter.

Electrify port operations. Ports are full of diesel equipment, and almost all of it has a proven electric replacement. Battery-electric yard tractors and terminal trucks already move containers across the docks. Ship-to-shore and gantry cranes run on grid power or batteries. Electric and hydrogen drayage trucks carry containers from the dock to the nearest rail yard or warehouse. Forklifts and cargo handlers switch to batteries, and refrigerated containers plug into electric racks. The RFC will finance the electrification of all port equipment at every port.

Port air quality monitoring mandate. Congress will require routine air quality monitoring at all major U.S. ports and make the data publicly available, with the federal government supplying the monitors and the public dashboard so the requirement arrives funded. Without monitoring, port pollution is invisible to everyone except the people breathing it.

Inland waterway modernization. America's inland rivers and canals carry roughly 500 million tons of cargo a year, including a large share of the nation's grain, coal, and bulk-commodity freight, on a system of locks and dams much of which is decades past its design life. The backlog of deferred maintenance is enormous. The RFC will finance upgrades to inland waterway infrastructure, prioritizing projects that enable cleaner vessel operation, such as lock rebuilds that cut the idling and energy waste of ships waiting to pass.

What this delivers: Shore power at every major U.S. port within a decade. Clean air in port communities that have suffered disproportionate pollution for decades. A grid that can support full port electrification. Routine air quality monitoring that makes the problem visible and the progress measurable.

Solution 4: Lead the International Transition

Ships cross borders, so clean shipping has to be an international program. Leading the international transition will also help rebuild trust with partners after the United States pulled back from international commitments in 2025. The United States will help write the rules and keep its commitments.

Reverse the IMO obstruction. The Mission for America will reverse the U.S. position at the IMO and actively support international maritime carbon pricing. The framework sets a limit on the greenhouse gases a ship's fuel can give off, and the limit tightens every year. A ship burning dirty fuel pays a fee on every ton of emissions above the line, on the order of one hundred to a few hundred dollars a ton, while a ship running clean fuel pays nothing and can sell credits to the ones that fall short. The fees flow into a global fund that helps poorer maritime nations make the switch. Each year the rising fee makes fossil bunker fuel more expensive relative to clean fuel. A carbon price visible on every shipping company's balance sheet changes the economics of retrofitting, clean fuel adoption, and fleet renewal worldwide.

The regulation works whether or not the United States takes part. Maritime emissions rules are enforced through port state control, the system under the MARPOL treaty that lets any port inspect, fine, and detain a ship that calls there no matter whose flag it flies. A non-compliant vessel cannot dodge the rules by reflagging, because almost every international voyage ends at a port that enforces them. IMO member states approved the carbon measure in April 2025 without American support. Once the IMO formally adopts it, the global fleet will have to comply either way. What American participation decides is whether American yards, ports, and fuel producers are positioned to serve that compliance.

Changing the U.S. position will be quick, but rebuilding trust will take longer. Within a single year, the United States walked out of MEPC 83 negotiations in April 2025, led the campaign that delayed carbon pricing six months later, cut short the 45V hydrogen tax credit that allied fuel producers were counting on, and published a Maritime Action Plan that left clean shipping out. The Marshall Islands, one of the three largest flag states in the world by gross tonnage, was among the climate-vulnerable maritime states pressed hardest by U.S. delegations before the vote, and it did not change its position. Other countries will not stake their shipyards, ports, and fuel producers on American partnership if the next administration can unwind it within a week, so the Mission will make binding, multi-year commitments. They will include treaty-level ratification of U.S. IMO positions where possible, statutory authorization of RFC clean shipping finance so it survives changes in administration, co-investment in the allied projects stranded by the 45V reversal, and public support for the flag states, including the Marshall Islands, that held their position under U.S. pressure.

Fund the gap the IMO levy cannot. The carbon price agreed at the IMO will not cover the full cost. The Net-Zero Framework will raise roughly $12 billion a year, by UCL's estimate, while the transition needs tens of billions to both scale clean fuel and bring lower-income maritime nations along. The second piece matters for practical reasons. Clean fuel has to be available along the world's major trade routes, including the developing-region ports many of them touch, or ships will keep burning oil on the legs where they cannot bunker it. The United States will direct supplementary financing through the RFC and established channels like the Green Climate Fund and the regional development banks to build fuel infrastructure at the ports the transition depends on.

Clean refueling diplomacy. The United States will work with allied nations (Japan, South Korea, the EU, Singapore, Australia) to build a network of clean refueling ports along major trade routes. American ports with green ammonia and methanol bunkering infrastructure become anchor points in this network. The RFC will finance bilateral agreements where U.S. fuel production capacity meets allied port infrastructure.

Technology export. As American retrofit capacity matures, it becomes an export advantage. The global demand for ship conversion will exceed Chinese and Middle Eastern capacity for years. American yards that prove their capability on the Jones Act fleet and federal vessels will attract foreign customers. The RFC will support export financing for retrofit services, making the United States the Western Hemisphere's leading ship conversion hub.

IMO regulatory engagement. The United States will actively participate in setting international clean fuel standards, emissions regulations, efficiency standards that reward wind-assist propulsion, and safety requirements for ammonia and methanol-fueled vessels. Helping set the standards will let American industry shape rules it has already learned to meet.

What this delivers: American leadership at the IMO. A global network of clean refueling ports with U.S. infrastructure as anchor points. An export market for American retrofit services and clean fuel production. International regulations that favor early movers like the United States.

Presidential Leadership

The president will make the case that the shipbuilding industry can be rebuilt, that the diesel pollution over the waterfront can be cleaned up, and that leading the global transition will rebuild trust with America's partners.

During the Campaign

The candidate makes the case in person. The candidate will run on rebuilding American shipyards and clearing the air over the country's waterfronts, touring the heavy shipbuilding regions and the port communities that have lived with diesel exhaust for generations. Stops will include the Hanwha-owned Philly Shipyard, Newport News, Pascagoula's Ingalls Shipbuilding, Bath Iron Works in Maine, Bay Shipbuilding in Wisconsin, and the workforce institutions that supply them, including welder and pipefitter locals, maritime academies, and the community colleges that retrain shipyard workers between contracts. Port-side rallies will run in West Long Beach, Wilmington, Newark, the Houston Ship Channel, Savannah, and Norfolk. The candidate will promise an American ship retrofit industry that converts the global fleet at scale, a Jones Act fleet running on green ammonia and methanol within a decade, shore power at every major U.S. port, and an end to the diesel pollution in port neighborhoods.

The first ship. The candidate will christen the first green-retrofitted ship at an American yard, sailing out of a port community on clean fuel with the workers who converted it on deck, and will pair a clean-air rally in one of the most polluted port neighborhoods with the first shore-power commitment and a named timeline.

Name the opposition. The candidate will name the interests standing in the way, including the bunker-fuel interests that profit from the fleet burning oil, the lobby for conventional shipbuilding only, and the members of Congress who would block the Jones Act green mandate. The candidate will answer them from the bully pulpit and, where members stand in the way, will campaign against them in their own districts.

Long-lead groundwork. Retrofit yards, bunkering, and clean-fuel plants take years to stand up, which is why the preparation runs through the campaign. Volunteer shipyard and maritime veterans will short-list the first repair yards for retooling and the first ports for shore power, open informal talks with the Korean, Japanese, and Singaporean shipbuilding partners the technology effort will need, and begin repairing the allied relationships the IMO reversal will depend on.

The Transition

Name the people. The president-elect will name the RFC shipping mission-team lead, someone who has run yards and fleets, and the director of the MARAD Office of Maritime Decarbonization, alongside the Secretaries of Transportation, Energy, and the EPA Administrator who will drive the build.

Settle the sites and the coalition. DOT, DOE, EPA, MARAD, the Coast Guard, the Navy, and the Army Corps of Engineers will coordinate around the federal fleet procurement framework, the bunkering site selections, the retrofit-yard certification standards, and the IMO position reversal before inauguration. The team will negotiate memoranda of understanding with the governors of the major maritime states (Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maine, Washington, California) on workforce training pipelines, permitting timelines, and state infrastructure dollars to match the federal push. State and Commerce will begin diplomatic outreach to the allied flag states that held the line against U.S. pressure in 2025 (the Marshall Islands and Singapore were among the top-tonnage registries that voted against postponement) and to the shipbuilding partners the U.S. will need on the technology side (Korea, Japan, Singapore), so the United States returns to the IMO with partners lined up.

Line up the deals with the RFC. The team will identify the first wave of yards for RFC retrofit financing and the first wave of ports for shore-power and grid financing, will set the Advanced Market Commitment terms that guarantee retrofit volume before yards invest, and will line up the Gulf Coast green ammonia and methanol production financing so clean fuel and converted ships arrive together.

Draft the legislation. Legislative counsel will draft the full package for the opening window so it is ready to land at inauguration.

Day One

The president will direct every federal agency that runs a civilian or support fleet to issue zero-emission procurement requirements for all new vessel orders within 90 days, with the RFC financing the retrofit of the existing federal fleet. A second order will reverse the U.S. position at the IMO, notifying the Secretariat that the United States will adopt and implement the Net-Zero Framework and help enforce and tighten it. Others will direct the EPA to make shore power and equipment electrification a condition of all future Clean Ports funding, and will restore as much of the 45V hydrogen credit as executive action can reach while the legislative package codifies the rest. A final order will stand up the Office of Maritime Decarbonization at MARAD to own the federal coordination of yard retooling, retrofit certification, and Jones Act green-mandate rulemaking.

The First 100 Days

The drafted legislation will go to Congress, and the president will work it through personally. It will authorize the RFC's shipping financing line, covering yard retooling, retrofit Advanced Market Commitments, Gulf Coast green ammonia and methanol production, port shore-power and grid upgrades, and offshore wind installation vessels. It will enact the Jones Act green mandate with a five-year transition, restore the 45V hydrogen tax credit, and create production tax credits for green marine fuels, including ammonia, methanol, and e-methanol. It will also mandate shore power at all 50 major U.S. ports, require port air-quality monitoring, and reverse OBBBA's offshore-wind restrictions.

Operational: Years 1–10

The president will publicly mark each yard that retools, each ship that sails on clean fuel, and each port where the air gets cleaner, making the air-quality case again as the monitors show pollution falling. The president will confront the bunker-fuel interests, the conventional-shipbuilding lobby, or members of Congress when they move to stall the build, and will campaign against the lawmakers who try to block it in their own districts. The RFC shipping mission team will run the financing, the Advanced Market Commitments, and the clean-fuel price guarantee. The White House will keep DOT, DOE, EPA, MARAD, and the maritime services aligned and keep up the diplomacy with allies and at the IMO, and MARAD's Office of Maritime Decarbonization will run the yard, retrofit, and Jones Act rulemaking.

What the 10-Year Mission Delivers

The Mobilization Begins by Year 1 (2030)

• Congress passes the Day One package and charters the RFC for shipping, and the first capital reaches the yards and Gulf Coast fuel projects inside the administration's first 100 days.
• The Jones Act green mandate becomes law with its five-year clock running, and American negotiators are back at the IMO, implementing the global carbon price and pushing for the next tightening of the standard.
• The first repair yards are picked for retrofit retooling, and welders and pipefitters sign on to stand them up.
• Construction crews break ground on the first green ammonia and methanol plants along the Gulf Coast.
• At the most polluted ports, the first shore-power and grid jobs begin, with the utility working on the port's schedule.
• Families in port neighborhoods watch the first air-quality monitors go up on their blocks, with a public baseline to track as the diesel clears.
• The first students enroll at maritime academies and community colleges retooled to train the conversion workforce.

Retrofits at Scale by Year 5 (2034)

• American yards are converting ships by the dozen, on methanol and ammonia both.
• Foreign-flag ships start sailing into U.S. yards for conversion because the order books in China and the Middle East are full.
• A converted ship can fuel up on green ammonia or methanol at the busiest American ports.
• Shore power reaches more than 30 major ports, up from 10, and the air over those waterfronts is cleaner.
• The first new Jones Act ships built to the zero-emission standard enter service while the existing fleet keeps cycling through the retrofit yards.
• Commuters in major port cities ride battery-electric ferries and harbor craft that run quiet and exhaust-free.
• The United States signs clean-refueling agreements with allies including Japan, South Korea, and the EU.

The Mission Delivered by Year 10 (2039)

• American yards convert ships by the hundreds and are the first call for shipowners anywhere who need to meet tightening emissions rules.
• New green ships roll out of American yards built from the keel up, an industry rebuilt on the back of the retrofit boom.
• Every major U.S. port offers shore power and runs its cranes, tractors, and trucks on electricity.
• The domestic clean-fuel supply chain stands on its own, with prices closing in on conventional fuel.
• Every new Jones Act ship runs on clean fuel, and most of the existing fleet has been converted.
• American ports anchor a clean-refueling network running along allied trade routes.
• More than 200,000 Americans work high-wage maritime jobs across the yards, the fuel plants, and the modernized ports.
• Port communities that breathed diesel exhaust for generations have clean air, with monitoring data to show it.