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REMARKS FOR
THE HONORABLE MARY PETERS
SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION
FASTER FREIGHT – CLEANER AIR 2007
LONG BEACH, CA
FEBRUARY 27, 2007
3:30 PM
Good afternoon, everyone. I want to thank Leslie Machado for that kind introduction. I am delighted to be part of this very timely, and very important, conference.
This is my second trip to the Los Angeles area in as many weeks, and it has brought me face to face with some of the most breath-taking vistas in our country – and some of the worst traffic. I spent this morning with Mayor Villaraigosa. We talked about LA’s troubling traffic trends and how congestion is eating away at the freedom and mobility so central to the Southern California lifestyle. We also talked about congestion’s impact on the region’s air quality.
That is a theme I also heard frequently last week during field hearings here in LA. As Secretary of Transportation, I chair the national commission charged with examining the condition and future needs of our nation’s surface transportation network to help guide the next reauthorization.
We have made it a point not only to meet in Washington, D.C., but also to travel to key parts of the country, where we can listen to the people who are actually using, building, or maintaining these transportation systems every day.
The LA hearings provided the commissioners with insight into the transportation challenges in one of America’s largest and most congested cities and the creative approaches being pursued here and across California to get people moving again.
And because the San Pedro Bay is the fulcrum of America’s trading economy, our hearing also focused heavily on freight and logistics and the many ways that congestion inside and outside the ports taxes our businesses, our economy, and our environment.
We know that the economic costs of congestion for the freight industry and its impact on productivity exceed $70 billion dollars a year. And when businesses factor in their schedule changes, buffer time requirements, substitute deliveries, and lost customers to that total, the price we all pay for congestion climbs higher still.
We know that in 2003, LA drivers burned an extra 407 million gallons of gas while spending more than 623 hours tied up in traffic. This means the average commuter wastes more than two entire weeks of work and more than a full tank of gas because of gridlock every year.
We also know that, just like the cars tied-up in traffic on Wilshire and Western, the container ships stuck off shore or waiting in berths to be off-loaded, and the trucks idling inside and outside the gates of the San Pedro Bay port complex have a major impact on the air quality here in California.
The bottom line is that congestion is simply costing us far too much, and we have become far too complacent about addressing it. We have allowed the very mobility that once enabled and empowered us to be overcome by traffic tie-ups across all forms of transportation – and it is endangering our freedom, our economy, and our independence.
That is why it is so important that we begin to fundamentally re-think how we finance and manage transportation systems. New approaches will provide economic benefits, relieve family stresses, and, or course, improve our natural environment and air quality.
This conference will highlight many significant initiatives aimed specifically at reducing the harmful emissions associated with freight transportation.
Right here at this port complex, we have the nation’s first “green port” leases, which make reducing pollutants part of the contract, and the two major railroads serving the ports have developed and begun using “greener,” lower-emission switching locomotives in and around their terminals.
The San Pedro Bay also features the first container terminal in the world equipped to allow ships to “cold line” – or plug in – for power rather than continue to run on diesel while in port.
And Maersk expects to cut 400 tons of vessel-related emissions annually at the Oakland and Los Angeles ports by using ultra-low-sulfur diesel and post-combustion technology in their ships.
We also can make important emissions gains landside. I have had discussions with Target and other shippers who are eager to find ways to reduce diesel emissions from the older trucks involved in dray activity at the port and rail terminals, and our Martime Administration is working with them to find a viable solution.
But along with these direct actions by the administrators for the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, by shipping lines, terminal operators, railroads, and shippers, we cannot afford to lose sight of the tremendous air quality gains to be realized when freight moves smoothly and efficiently through our nation’s ports and across our country.
That is one of the things that impressed me about the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan. It recognizes that marine terminal and rail development can be compatible with – and even advance – environmental goals.
Indeed, faster freight means cleaner air – the organizers of this conference got it exactly right. So an essential part of our strategy for clearing the air here in Southern California and across the country must be relieving the bottlenecks that hamper the free movement of goods across our freight network.
This is not a challenge that we can put off. The United States economy is outpacing every other economy in the industrialized world, and expanding trade is fueling the growth.
President Bush understands the global nature of our economy, and he is committed to continue opening new markets for American goods to build on our 12.7 percent increase in exports last year.
But growing trade volumes mean increased pressure on an already strained transportation network – threatening more logjams, longer backups, and new threats to our freedom of movement, and our financial and physical health.
When the performance of our ports, highways, and railways breaks down, they not only become a chokepoint for our economy, they can literally choke the communities surrounding them.
The answer is not to throw up our hands and accept congestion and the pollution that comes with it as a fact of life or as just another cost of doing business. Nor is the answer to turn our back on progress and prosperity and stop the flow of goods so vital to our economic success.
Congestion is a solvable problem, but we need to do a better job of employing 21st Century solutions to get our transportation systems moving again.
President Bush has made fighting congestion a priority, and he is putting new resources into the effort. The budget he submitted to Congress earlier this month targets $175 million directly at congestion relief. These funds will supplement monies we have already committed to helping state and local governments find fresh and innovative ways to reduce gridlock as part of the comprehensive Congestion Relief strategy introduced nine months ago.
Forging a consensus on freight solutions is an essential component of our initiative, and we are beginning with the Southern California ports that handle over 40 percent of America’s waterborne trade.
Many of you are familiar with the Long Beach Office we set up to serve as a one-stop point of access between the ports and the Department of Transportation. Building on this effort, our Deputy Director for the Maritime Administration, Julie Nelson, is spearheading the Southern California Gateway congestion initiative, and our goal is to develop a model that can become a template for other freight gateways.
Julie and her team are working closely with local governments and the port community to help cut red tape that could get in the way of clearing congestion and to facilitate access to technical assistance in areas ranging from environmental best practices to innovative financing.
In fact, right after this conference, we are holding a Southern California Funding Forum with the EPA in Wilmington. This is a terrific opportunity to learn more about financing options. The 2005 surface transportation reauthorization, SAFETEA-LU, opened new opportunities for ports and the critical last mile connections from ship to rail and road.
Another part of our congestion-relief strategy with strong implications for America’s ports is our Corridors for the Future competition.
Earlier this month, I announced the 14 proposals that made the first cut because of their strong potential to reduce congestion along some of our busiest trade and travel routes. Any number of creative ideas that will help move freight faster are on the table, including truck-auto separation, rail and waterway corridors, and urban truck bypasses, as well as a variety of innovative financing approaches. Our short-list includes proposals for the I-10 corridor from Southern California to Jacksonville, Florida, and for improvements along the I-5 in California, Washington and Oregon.
Through April 30th, we will be accepting applications for another key aspect of the initiative called Urban Partnerships. We are inviting communities to join with us to reduce congestion in their region by embracing effective strategies designed to spread traffic flows throughout the day and make better use of existing highways.
California is already demonstrating the potential of one possible strategy, congestion pricing, on SR-91 as well as here at the ports through the Pier Pass program. Pier Pass has succeeded in diverting more than 30 percent of container traffic to off-peak shifts in its first six months of operation.
The result has been less congestion inside the ports and reduced traffic on area freeways. And with fewer idling trucks “bunching” at the gates, the pricing and operational changes have everyone beginning to breathe easier.
We must continue to find ways to make near-term gains by improving the performance of our transportation network. At the same time, we need to invest in our future. So a final piece of our congestion initiative I want to bring to your attention concerns opportunities for private financing.
SAFETEA-LU’s innovative financing provisions and the growing number of private companies and financiers on Wall Street and around the country creating infrastructure funds and showing interest in investing in transportation projects open a powerful combination of opportunities for the ports and the networks that feed them. But they are only available to states with public-private partnership laws that remove legal barriers to investing.
This is especially important here. Private-sector groups we talk to say California – and Southern California in particular – is the most attractive investment opportunity in America, if not the world.
California’s recently passed $20 billion bond initiative provides resources to jump-start the state’s transportation investment program, including $2 billion dollars dedicated for goods movement and another $1 billion dollars for environmental improvements.
But leaders from Governor Schwarzenegger to Senate Transportation Chairman Alan Lowenthal recognize the need for new thinking when it comes to the way the state pays for transportation projects. Senator Lowenthal showed great insight when he said recently, “We’re used to free roads and everything being free. That is a 1950s model. If we want to move forward, we are going to have to head in a different direction.”
California was an early pioneer in public-private financing, and its approach to the Alameda Corridor inspired the expansion of the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, or TIFIA, loan program that was approved in SAFETEA-LU.
I hope the state will continue that tradition by removing the roadblocks that could prevent California from taking advantage of one of the most promising options emerging for funding, building, and managing transportation.
Americans understand that our transportation systems are key to the unprecedented freedom that has helped us build the world’s leading cities, the world’s strongest businesses, and a better tomorrow for our children and grandchildren.
At the Department of Transportation, our goal is to once again make our transportation system a source of freedom, not frustration, for America’s families and businesses. By striking the right balance, we can provide a transportation network that moves freight faster, delivers cleaner air, and begins to restore the freedom of movement we all treasure.
I appreciate your being here today, and for being part of this vital effort. Thank you.
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