Welcome to the Ports-to-Plains Region!

The Ports-to-Plains Alliance, based in Lubbock, Texas, is a non-profit, non-partisan, community-driven advocacy group led by mayors, councilpersons, economic development officials, business and other opinion leaders from ten U.S. states served by a nine-state, 2,300-plus mile economic development corridor between Mexico and Canada. In the U.S. these communities reach from Texas on the south to North Dakota and Montana on the north. The corridor extends into the energy and agriculture rich areas in Canada.  The Government of Alberta joins many communities in Alberta and Saskatchewan looking to expand infrastructure serving the economic needs of their regions and the whole of the Ports-to-Plains Corridor.  In Mexico development is taking place connecting the Texas/Mexico border in communities along the corridor stretching to the Ports of Mazatlán on the west coast of Mexico.

Over the past decade and a half, Ports-to-Plains Alliance members have seen billions in federal and state funding for road improvements in the Ports-to-Plains region. Today, we continue to collaborate with our federal and state leaders, partners in Canada and Mexico, and industry partners, to deliver the infrastructure, food, fiber and fuel that secure the quality of life of America's great cities. Click here to see the current status of the highway infrastructure. 

The corridor serves North America’s energy heartland including the oils sands in Alberta, Bakken, Niobrara, Permian, Cline, Eagle Ford and emerging Mexico energy plays.  At the same time, we embrace America's new energy economy, and are capitalizing upon wind power, biofuels and other innovation sectors to renew one of America's greatest legacies, the rural heartland.

Ports-to-Plains Assets

• The four U.S. Congressionally-Designated High Priority Corridors on the National Highway System (Ports-to-Plains, Heartland Expressway, Theodore Roosevelt Expressway and the northern portions of Camino Real) and many secondary rural highways support 14.9% of the total U.S. GDP ($2.0 trillion), and are home to 45.6 million citizens (14.42% of the U.S. Total). North Dakota and Texas ranked one and two in percent increase in GDP in 2012.
• A major U.S. trading region generating $282.2 billion (2013) in trade with Canada and Mexico, more than 24.78% of the total U.S. – North American trade by all modes of transportation. By truck the region accounts for 26.1% of U.S. – North American trade; more than $177.5 billion moved by truck.
• Four of the top ten and seven of the top twenty U.S. States for Installed Wind Capacity (2013) with 21,687 MW. Texas ranks number one. The region accounts for 68.8 million MWH of electrical generation or 48.9% of the total wind generation in the U.S.
• Top six nationwide, eight of the top 10 U.S. states for potential wind energy generation and generating over 8,317 MW, nearly 76.9% of the U.S. total
• Seven of top ten and eight of the top fifteen oil producing states, producing over 1.667 billion barrels annually in 2013
• Alberta ranks third, after Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, in terms of proven recoverable global crude oil reserves
• Five of the top eight and seven of the top fifteen natural gas producing states that produced over 57.5% or 13,966,836 million cubic feet in 2012
• Oil and natural gas accounts for three million jobs or 35.8% of the nation in the region, generating incomes of over $208.5 billion or 40.5% of the entire nation's oil and gas jobs and income
• Four of the top ten states in ethanol production with 3,869 million gallons on 2014 resulting in almost 28.3% of that national production
• North America's agricultural heartland, producing over $111 billion of agricultural goods, or 28.22% of the U.S. total in 2012; three of the top ten farm states; Canada and Mexico are the top two export markets for U.S. farm products
• Accidents will be significantly reduced on current two-lane segments of the corridor when they are upgraded to four-lane-divided highway. Rural roads are dangerous and improving them SAVES LIVES. Each year, more than 42,000 Americans are killed and nearly 3 million are injured on our nation's highways. The total economic cost of these crashes exceeds $230 billion annually. Unfortunately, nearly 60 percent of highway fatalities typically occur on two-lane rural roads. When adjusted for vehicle miles traveled, according to the Governmental Accounting Office, some rural roads have a fatality rate over six times greater than urban interstates. These facts are extremely troubling since only 40 percent of all vehicle miles are traveled on two-lane rural roads.