Inland waterway industry presses against lockage fee

Inland waterway industry presses against lockage fee    The U.S. inland waterway freight transportation industry plans to continue lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill to eliminate an Obama administration proposal to introduce lockage fees to 'improve the economic efficiency' of the waterway system.
   'We're strongly opposed to that idea,' said John S. Doyle Jr., vice president of government affairs for the Waterways Council, during an industry press gathering in Washington on Wednesday.
   The Washington-based council is supported by more than 250 waterways carriers, shippers, port authorities, shipping associations and waterways advocacy groups from all regions of the country.
   President Obama followed the Bush administration earlier this year by supporting a lockage fee. Terrence Salt, acting assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, testified in mid-May before the House Appropriations Committee's energy and water development subcommittee in support of including the lockage fee proposal in the Army Corps of Engineers' fiscal year 2010 budget.
   Waterways Council officials said so far the lockage fee proposal has failed to gain support among lawmakers, even though the Obama administration said the fee could generate an additional $1.259 billion over the next 10 years.
   Cornel J. Martin, president and chief executive officer of the Waterways Council, warned that a lockage fee would be 'grossly out of step' with the country's efforts to encourage more shipper use of energy efficient freight transportation through the nation's inland waterway system.
   To avoid the lockage fees, Martin said inland waterway shippers might decide to divert their cargo from the waterways to already congested railroads and highways.
   The U.S. inland waterway system includes about 12,000 miles of navigable waterways across 38 states. In 2006, more than 625 million tons of freight commodities, including grain, coal, aggregate, chemicals and petroleum products, moved on the U.S. inland waterways. The Waterways Council noted that these movements resulted in an average transportation cost savings of $11 per ton compared to other transport modes.
   The Texas Transportation Institute concluded in a recent report that rail transport emits 39 percent more carbon dioxide, and trucks a whopping 371 percent more carbon dioxide per ton-mile (emissions generated while shipping one ton of cargo one mile) than by inland barge transport.
   Instead of a lockage fee, the council urges the administration to allow a current government-industry initiative underway to develop an improved project delivery system and long-term capital plan for the nation's inland waterways infrastructure. The goal of the initiative is to develop a comprehensive, consensus-based program to ensure that resources and processes can achieve a reliable, cost-effective and environmentally sustainable inland marine transportation system, along with a funding stream that industry can afford and is sufficient to meet needs identified in the plan, the council explained.
   Martin said this initiative, which is being developed jointly by industry leaders and the Corps of Engineers, will be presented to Congress later this year for consideration in the development of a 2010 Water Resources Development Act. ' Chris Gillis