Sea the key to avoiding transportation congestion

U.S. Representative John L. Mica (R-Fla.), ranking member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, hosted a forum on short sea shipping as a solution to freight congestion. According to a study by the Texas Transportation Institute of the Texas A&M University, the inland waterways system is a vital aspect of America’s freight transportation network with a value of about $70 billion which contributes to America’s economic strength.

Mica said that since energy costs are going up and environmental issues are taking center stage, it was important to try to find ways to expand transportation capacity. The forum agreed that the key was to remember that surface transportation involves not only road and rail but sea as well. Representatives of ports, industry and labor agreed that short sea shipping was a strategic key to taking traffic congestion off the roads.

The U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration also offered encouraging statistics regarding energy comparisons for the distance that one gallon of fuel can use to move one ton. The data shows that a truck can move 59 tons/miles per gallon while an inland barge can move 514 tons/miles per gallon.

How to drive less: you can't afford the gas

People are driving like a bunch of idiots, and they're driving a million miles an hour. That was the statement of Representative Don Young (R-AK), at the House Subcommittee Transportation and Infrastructure hearing on "Rising Diesel Fuel Costs in the Trucking Industry." His overall sentiment was the United States can never drill the way into total independence, but we can drill our way into more stability. However, Young said, it doesn’t solve the problem. He said that all Congress was doing was sitting around and talking, while we're misusing the fossil fuels we have left. Congress, Young said as he stabbed his finger into the air, needs to stop pandering to the general public because they're not looking at solutions. He said he had a solution to make people change their driving habits: he's going to promote a tax of one dollar on every gallon of gasoline.

The overall message of the hearing is that supplies need to increase, and demands need to change. It’s nice when people are talking about windmills, John Mica (R-FL) said, but we need a long term and short term policy to help this issue. The short term policy: you don’t need to be a Harvard PhD to figure out that we need a short term increase in supply. To do that, we’ll need to tap some of our domestic resources. At some point, Mica said, people are going to say “we’ve got to do something about these costs,” and the only solution is to increase our supply. The people demanding change are going to end up right outside the building, voicing their concerns.

Mr. Tyson Slocum, Director, Public Citizen’s Energy Program, said there are some areas that remain immune, such as the financial companies. There are several variables the influence supply and demand, but there is no question that Congress can take steps to provide relief. Everyone talks about oil industry profits, he said, but in addition, by far the oil companies largest expenditure was buying back their own stock. Comparatively low expenditures were on providing consumers with long term relief, such as exploration.

The "Enron loophole," as it is reffered to, was brought up repeatedly and eventually Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) expressed an interest in regulating the market. Can we do away with the Enron loophole, he asked, adding that speculation seemed a likely culprit in the high costs of gas and diesel prices. He suggested taking the excess costs from the CEO's pensions.