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Opening remarks, as prepared, of Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Ranking Member Bob Gibbs (R-OH) from today’s hearing entitled, “Short Sea Shipping: Rebuilding America’s Maritime Industry”:

Increased use of waterborne transportation of commercial freight between domestic U.S. ports – short sea shipping – could expand the limited, and increasingly crowded, freight transportation capacity of the Nation’s rail and road system without large additional public investment.

Historically, freight moved by water in the United States, while a large portion of bulk shipments still move by water.  Increased availability of trains and trucks have reduced the water movement of higher value freight.  

Water is far and away the most fuel efficient way to move freight, but since it is geographically confined, it is limited in its ability to get goods to their ultimate destination, the last mile problem, and every loading, unloading and reloading of the freight adds expense and time delays. 

Increased freight volumes, limited dollars to invest in new infrastructure, increased road congestion, and increased interest in reducing air emissions have all been cited in recent years as reasons that short sea shipping should be examined as an alternative source of added transportation capacity. 

However, movement of container freight on America’s waterways has not increased.  Reasons given include, configuration of large ports to handle large vessels; the reluctance of freight shippers to move to new modes transportation; and, the difficulty for potential shipbuilders to secure financing for new ship construction if they do not have freight contracts in place to prove that they can pay off the vessel’s mortgages. 

In 2007, Congress established the Short Sea Transportation program to promote the domestic transportation of freight by water.  I look forward to hearing from the witnesses today about whether that program has worked, and what additional public or private actions can be taken to promote such transportation.

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