Prepared Talking Points by
Captain William G. Schubert
Maritime Administrator
January 7, 2004

Seaport Advisory Council
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
"Short Sea Shipping – Ocean Highways for the Future"

It is certainly an honor to be here today before state and municipal leaders committed to the Commonwealth’s maritime heritage and the future of Massachusetts. Your dedication to fostering a climate that encourages maritime growth is critical to the regional and national economy.

Lt. Governor Healy – Thank you for your warm introduction and to Dick Armstrong, thank you for inviting me here today. The Romney/Healy Administration has taken a strong leadership role in committing resources to the state’s ports in terms of development, infrastructure and oversight. On behalf of Secretary Mineta and the Bush Administration, we applaud your efforts.

We’ve made outreach to the port community one of my agency’s top priorities, and shaping the Maritime Administration to better meet the demands of this century has been a focus of my tenure at the Department.

As Maritime Administrator – I hope you will view me as your liaison to the U.S. Department of Transportation. I have an open-door policy with the maritime community and I hope you will consider MARAD to be a resource as you continue to develop the state’s seaports. Whether the challenge is infrastructure improvements, security enhancements, harbor dredging or the development of intermodal facilities and intermodal connectors, we have experts who can advise you and help you navigate the federal landscape.

I can tell your first-hand that Secretary Mineta is fully engaged in maritime issues, especially as they relate to the larger transportation picture. The Secretary and his senior staff are committed to more efficient integration of our Marine Transportation System (MTS) into our overall National Transportation System. For the port industry, this is great news and the leadership’s vision for the future certainly shapes what we do at MARAD.

Since his first day on the job, Secretary Mineta has challenged his leadership team at the Department of Transportation to put President Bush’s three principles for government reform into action. Our initiatives are citizen-centered, results oriented and promote innovation and competition. The Secretary has also challenged us to look beyond the horizon when considering the impact of the decisions and investments we make have on the transportation network of the future.

As a result, the Department of Transportation is working to better integrate our transportation system by promoting the use of waterways to complement our rail, highway, and airborne transportation. We know we need to rethink our systems, develop modern technology that can be applied to integrated transportation systems, and improve infrastructure in order to meet the economic demands of the future.

Using that forward-thinking approach, we see two major challenges in the coming years that our ports face. One is the obvious, increased port congestion, that is a result of increased trade. The other challenge is less obvious, but very relevant and known to ports and communities in states like Massachusetts that hold a rich maritime heritage. The viability of the port as a working waterfront is increasingly under threat in some places, by developers and community members who don’t completely understand the economic value of the working waterfront.

President Bush and Secretary Mineta know that a safe, reliable and efficient transportation network is vital to our Nation’s economic strength. Working waterfronts are a significant piece of that network. An organization like the Seaport Council is a critical institution that can help support these economic engines that keep domestic and international trade moving.

As trade is expected to grow – double, and even triple in some cases over the next two decades, the need to expand new and innovative transportation options will become more evident as traditional surface transportation modes such as highways and rail, reach full capacity.

Congested highway corridors in the Northeast, most notably I- 95, have pointed to the need to develop short sea shipping services to meet the expected expansion in freight movements.

As a concept and method of shipping goods, short sea shipping will ultimately transform and strengthen our nation’s Marine Transportation System through enhancing economic activity at our smaller ports while helping reduce surface transportation congestion in adjacent metropolitan areas.

For me, the short sea shipping initiative has been a labor of love and I am anxious to see all our efforts come to fruition sometime in the near future.

• MARAD is actively studying potential opportunities to develop commercially viable coastal shipping routes to serve the East, Gulf and West Coats in order to improve intermodal efficiencies and mitigate congestion.

• MARAD is actively exploring ways to remove existing obstacles that would challenge the viability of short sea shipping.

• In developing and promoting a robust short sea shipping system for the nation, consensus and teamwork is critical.

• MARAD is the sponsor of a newly formed short sea shipping cooperative program that was formed for the purpose of facilitating projects on short sea shipping from a public-private partnerships standpoint.

• Over 40 private industry groups have already joined the Cooperative Program and contributed over $100,000 toward the development of future short sea shipping start-up projects.

• These start-up projects will serve as the catalyst for new North American short sea shipping initiatives

• It is exciting to see the maritime community form a dues paying organization, led by volunteer officers from the private sector.

• The newly established Short Sea Shipping Cooperative Program claims truckers, transportation planners as well as maritime industry stakeholders in its active membership.

• And, I am happy to tell you that at MARAD’s November Short Sea Shipping Conference in Sarasota the United States, Canada, and Mexico signed a Short Sea Shipping Memorandum of Cooperation to share short sea technology, experience, and policy. We are very serious about using Short Sea Shipping to solve many of our NAFTA trade transportation congestion problems.

I am thrilled to see that the Seaport Council is voting today to explore the Short Sea Initiative for the Commonwealth and voting to join the Cooperative Program. The state’s commitment to the short sea initiative will enhance our federal efforts and we look forward to building a working relationship with you.

Water is now being more fully integrated into the national transportation system framework than it has been in decades. I ask that you will join me in helping transform this historically and critically important mode into a more visible transportation option through maintaining a close relationship with the Maritime Administration.

Enhancing freight mobility is a priority of the Bush Administration. We know that congestion affects our environment, our quality of life and our economy. We also know that freight mobility is your lifeblood – it’s what keeps your ports operating and moving. I look forward to continuing our discussions and working together, and I thank you for this opportunity to share with you this encouraging outlook for the maritime community.