Transportation secretary tours port, talks money

By Chris Metinko  |  San Jose Mercury News  |  Link to article
July 02, 2009

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and elected officials toured the Port of Oakland on Thursday and discussed the possibility of more federal money rolling on to its docks.

LaHood met with a host of local, state and federal officials in discussing the port's place in the regional and national economies. LaHood stressed the ideas of all of the West Coast's ports working collaboratively to cut down on pollution and talked of creating a "port czar" position that would put together a collaborative plan for the nation's ports.

LaHood also spoke about the possibility of securing for the Oakland port some federal Transportation Investment Generating Recovery Grant money. The $1.5 billion available in the so-called TIGER grants is available to local and state governments for a variety of transportation projects.

"Our ports are our economic engines, and we need these engines to be revving up," said U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, who along Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, joined LaHood.

Both the port and Alameda County face a great "moment of opportunity" to both restart the economy and clean up the environment by creating green jobs, Boxer said.

Dellums said he sees much potential in the port's future.

"I think the future of the port is that of a port of Middle America," said Dellums, adding the Port of Oakland has the advantage of being able to easily move goods outside of the Bay Area.

Lee mentioned the port already has received nearly $24 million in federal stimulus money, but more will be needed to keep the port — with its more than $9.7 billion worth of U.S. exports — growing and becoming more environmentally friendly.

Both Lee and LaHood stressed the importance of not discouraging ports from looking for environmentally conscience methods of moving goods.

The key to creating more environmentally friendly ports, LaHood said, is to transport more goods by ship rather than trucks. He mentioned, in particular, the importance of a "marine highway" along the West Coast.

"We will be putting a good deal of emphasis on the marine highway in order for us to get trucks off the road and get cleaner air," LaHood said.