The dramatic melting of the polar ice cap will continue to open the Arctic to resource extraction, fishing, tourism and international shipping. The first inter-ocean commercial transit of the northern sea route over Eurasia is planned for this summer. Governance regimes are not keeping pace with the explosion of new marine activity in the previously ice-blocked region.
There are no signs and should be no expectations that Congress is going to relax the 100 percent container-scanning mandate. Still, and shortsightedly, in my opinion, some resist this rule and remain far from compliance. A dramatic readjustment of current policies and a new sense of urgency about continued and unnerving supply-chain insecurity are needed to resolve this impasse.
With December’s Copenhagen Climate Conference and with a new administration supporting a cap-and-trade system, the shipping industry will need to account for its greenhouse gas emissions. At this early juncture, a levy on marine fuels to be funneled directly to the Clean Development Mechanism might make the most sense (although I strongly support a trading scheme for national emissions reductions).
Lastly, and in the midst of this historic economic downturn, the nation is presented with an extraordinary opportunity to revitalize coastal shipping, or “short-sea shipping,” as part of any economic stimulus package. The U.S. today moves almost a negligible 2 percent of domestic freight by this medium among the lower 48 states; in stark contrast, Europe ships more than 40 percent of its domestic freight along “motorways of the sea.” A transportation perfect storm is brewing. Congestion data point to near-term gridlock, and the American Society of Civil Engineers rates more than 25 percent of our 599,893 bridges as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.
Coastal shipping should be a key solution in an urgently needed national, comprehensive and strategic transportation vision. The federal government can facilitate this by eliminating the Harbor Maintenance Tax, making modest investments into prospective regional ports, and eliminating the domestic-build provision of the Jones Act. U.S. shipbuilders should not cling to archaic protectionism that undermines their competitiveness, but should embrace a unique opportunity for reinvention by building a new fleet of environmentally friendly coastal ships. Our environment, national security and broader economic competitiveness depend in part on America going back to the future by shipping freight by sea.