Coming together for the greater good
The ports business should be repeating its mantra “seaports bring prosperity”
Even before the 2008 elections, President Obama and his team were talking about Infrastructure.
And now, the White House is trumpeting a fresh infrastructure initiative, pegged at up to $50bn in size (over six years), from early reports.
However, in the broader context, a political battle between reigning Democrats (pointing to job creation and economic stimulus) and Republicans (let’s not increase the deficit), suggests that the Administration’s ideas are a long way from reality. Thus, it’s imperative that all stakeholders connected with ports and maritime infrastructure make a lot of noise, stressing the multiplicative impacts of port investments, at a time that economic forecasters are concerned about a “double dip”.
In a Labor Day speech, the Secretary of Labor waxed enthusiastically about: “…millions of people are at work, building and rebuilding America's roads, bridges, ports, and high-speed rail”.
In what has become the style of Washington DC politics, oponents of the Democrats nitpicked every aspect of the plan. In this caustic political environment, the ports business should be pounding away, saying its mantra “seaports bring prosperity” over and over (with intensity as needed). It would be hard to find a Republican who could argue with the connection between trade flows and jobs.
Also factored into the mix, and hopefully not lost in the intense fighting about to ensue, is short sea shipping. The Department of Transportation is seeding a group of marine highway projects aimed at providing water alternatives for freight moving over congested highway networks.
In the new round of proposals and studies of cargo flows about to emerge, port interests ought to be asking the questions about the efficacy of highways and wider access roads versus entirely new highways on the water. If the arguments for short sea are framed properly - in a business-sensical way, including imputing real “costs” on road congestion - then some of the marine highway projects ought to be quickly moved into the shovel-ready category.
Such projects might be funded, at least partially, by Obama’s Infrastructure Bank (part of the new plan), as a starting point for operation by private companies. Even a Republican, seeking economic vitality, could love and vote for such projects.
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