LaHood unveils Marine Highway initiative

LaHood unveils Marine Highway initiative    U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood unveiled a short sea shipping initiative on Wednesday.
   He said the under the 'America's Marine Highway' program, the Maritime Administration would help identify rivers and coastal routes that could carry cargo efficiently, bypassing congested roads around busy ports and reducing greenhouse gases.

LaHood

   'For too long, we've overlooked the economic and environmental benefits that our waterways and domestic seaports offer as a means of moving freight in this country,' LaHood said. “Moving goods on the water has many advantages. It reduces air pollution. It can help reduce gridlock by getting trucks off our busy surface corridors.'
   LaHood spoke at the seventh annual North American Marine Highways and Logistics Conference in Baltimore, Md.
   Under the new regulation, regional transportation officials would be able to apply to have specific transportation corridors — and even individual projects — designated by the Department of Transportation as a marine highway if they meet certain criteria. Once designated, these projects will receive preferential treatment for any future federal assistance from the department or MarAd.

Matsuda

   David Matsuda, acting MarAd administrator, said the program has “so much potential to help our nation in many ways: reduced gridlock and greenhouse gases, and more jobs for skilled mariners and shipbuilders.'
   The Marine Highway initiative stems from a 2007 law requiring the transportation secretary to 'establish a short sea transportation program and designate short sea transportation projects to mitigate surface congestion.'
   Earlier this year, LaHood announced $58 million in grants for projects to support the startup or expansion of Marine Highways services, awarded through the department's TIGER grants program. Congress has also set aside an additional $7 million in grants that MarAd will award later this year.
   DOT published an interim final rule that established America's Marine Highway Program last October, and MarAd Wednesday posted a 51-page final rule on the program on its Web site, and said it would be published in the Federal Register Thursday.
   The rule said: “freight tonnage of all types, including exports, imports, and domestic shipments, is expected to grow 73 percent by 2035 from 2008 levels ' The development of a capable, cost-effective, safe and resilient transportation system is essential to handling the movement of this cargo in a manner that is efficient with respect to cost, energy usage and environmental consequences. Since nearly all international cargoes move along our surface transportation corridors to access or depart from seaports, which are major gateways for commerce, getting such cargoes to and from the major seaports could involve more usage of marine corridors to and from smaller and medium-sized maritime ports.”
   MarAd said it received 319 comments on the proposed rule with the vast majority supportive of the Marine Highway Program. It said there were more than 100 corridor recommendations. Several comments proposed the program be fully funded through upcoming Surface Transportation Reauthorization.
   It said 40 comments proposed specific incentives or solutions to perceived impediments to expansion of the marine highways, including 13 focused on the degree to which collection of Harbor Maintenance Tax acts as an impediment to the development of the Marine Highway Program. ' Chris Dupin