Page 20: of Marine News Magazine (May 2022)

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Column

Marine Highways “It would be fair to say that it has been a challenge to get cargo off of the roads and onto the river, worthy as such a cause may be.”

Another reason is that the inland waterways are very cargo, so long as the project also includes a “wheeled” car- ef? cient for carrying bulk cargo, both dry and liquid, go component. It could be analogous to providing funds so there is a natural incentive to continue using them in to build a parking garage so long as it includes charging this way, and to design and operate ports and terminals stations for electric vehicles.

for this use. The kind of cargo that is eligible for grants Just as there is a natural reluctance on the part of ports under the Marine Highways Program needs very different and terminals to make the changes necessary to handle equipment and landside facilities than those used for bulk “wheeled” cargo, so also there is reluctance on the part cargoes. Without having this special cargo to be handled, of shippers to employ a means of carrying their prod- ports and terminals on the rivers do not have an incentive ucts with which they are unfamiliar and about which to acquire the equipment and make the space needed to they have concerns of reliability and timeliness. A con- handle it. On the other hand, without the facilities on the certed effort by MARAD to educate the shipper com- rivers available to handle such cargo, shippers do not have munity and to alleviate their concerns could be helpful an incentive to use the rivers to transport it. in this regard. The next WRDA could be used to give

It has been suggested that expanding the Marine High- MARAD a mandate—and funding—to undertake such ways Program to include bulk cargoes would create more an effort, or to make grants to others to do so, whether interest in the program, which in turn would support the as part of the existing Marine Highways Program or as case for increasing the funds available for it. This has been a new program.

raised in discussions of what should be included in the Another idea that has been recently discussed is the cre- next Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which ation of a federal advisory committee, formed under the the industry is hoping will be passed this year in keeping Federal Advisory Committee Act, in which ports, carriers, with the two-year cycle of such legislation. This would and shippers would work with MARAD speci? cally on the require a fundamental shift in the orientation of the pro- mission of moving cargo from the roads to the rivers.

gram, which might not be feasible as a practical matter, There is already a U.S. Maritime Transportation Sys- despite the bipartisan support that waterways programs tem National Advisory Committee (MTSNAC), and its enjoy in Congress. charter of September 17, 2020 states that the objective

On the other hand, a hybrid approach might be pos- of the committee is “to identify and seek solutions to im- sible. This could be, say, allowing grants to be made for pediments hindering effective use of short sea transporta- projects that are for the transportation or handling of bulk tion.” However, the minutes of the committee’s meetings 20 | MN May 2022