{"id":6150,"date":"2021-12-01T12:58:41","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T16:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=6150"},"modified":"2021-12-01T12:58:41","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T16:58:41","slug":"commissioners-bentzel-and-sola-visit-pnw-to-explore-port-congestion-cruise-industry-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/commissioners-bentzel-and-sola-visit-pnw-to-explore-port-congestion-cruise-industry-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Commissioners Bentzel and Sola visit PNW to explore port congestion & cruise industry issues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Federal Maritime\u00a0Commissioners Carl\u00a0W.\u00a0Bentzel and Louis E.\u00a0Sola traveled to\u00a0Washington state\u00a0the week of\u00a0November 15-19, 2021,\u00a0for meetings\u00a0with\u00a0port,\u00a0maritime,\u00a0and the cruise industry stakeholders\u00a0to discuss\u00a0pandemic-related\u00a0impacts to\u00a0those sectors and the broader issues of\u00a0port competitiveness.<\/p>\n<p>While in the Pacific Northwest,\u00a0the\u00a0Commissioners met with\u00a0local\u00a0Coast Guard\u00a0leadership and\u00a0toured the Puget\u00a0Sound\u00a0to\u00a0assess the\u00a0impact of\u00a0containerships\u00a0anchored\u00a0there\u00a0waiting for access to the ports.\u00a0\u00a0During\u00a0a site visit to the Port of Tacoma, the Commissioners\u00a0toured the port,\u00a0met with\u00a0Port Commissioners\u00a0and\u00a0Northwest\u00a0Seaport Alliance\u00a0(NWSA)\u00a0Chief\u00a0Executive\u00a0Officer\u00a0John\u00a0Wolf\u00a0to examine\u00a0challenges of providing\u00a0warehouse capacity near the\u00a0Port of Tacoma.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u00a0am\u00a0concerned that the backlog of cargo in our harbors and the lack of transparency clogging our supply chain could be a contributing factor to rising inflation,\u201d said Commissioner Bentzel. \u201cIt\u2019s important that we address port congestion and increase container velocity, and the ports of Seattle and Tacoma are critical entry-points for our\u00a0Nation\u2019s commerce.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Seattle, the Commissioners\u00a0toured a cruise facility followed by\u00a0a\u00a0cruise\u00a0roundtable hosted by the\u00a0Port of Seattle and\u00a0chaired by\u00a0Commissioner Sola. The Pacific Northwest is the\u00a0fourth\u00a0largest cruise region in the country, servicing\u00a0an average of\u00a01.4 million passengers\u00a0annually.\u00a0At the roundtable, stakeholders\u00a0discussed\u00a0the steps taken, in coordination with the Centers for Disease Control,\u00a0to bring the cruise industry back.\u00a0Representatives from Congress, the Governor\u2019s office, and the City of Seattle also weighed in on the challenges and opportunities of better coordination in working through the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe success of the 2021 Alaska and Seattle cruise seasons\u00a0is\u00a0a\u00a0testament to the hard work and cooperative\u00a0efforts\u00a0of many individuals in the public and private sectors who understood the\u00a0need for\u00a0ships\u00a0to again\u00a0sail.\u00a0\u00a0Cruising is an important part of the tourism sector for any port city, but for many communities in Alaska, it is their economic lifeline.\u00a0 I applaud all those who focused on finding solutions to get this industry operating again in the Pacific Northwest.\u00a0 I know there are countless small business owners and working families dependent on cruise-related income that share my appreciation for the public policy priority this issue became,\u201d said Commissioner Sola.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Commissioner Bentzel\u00a0hosted a roundtable with the\u00a0NWSA\u00a0on\u00a0examining regional\u00a0port congestion issues.\u00a0 They were joined by Congresswoman Kim\u00a0Schrier, who represents agricultural\u00a0interests\u00a0and\u00a0manufacturers\u00a0in her district.\u00a0 Stakeholders representing trucking, rail, pilots,\u00a0and the terminals also participated and contributed to the conversation.\u00a0The conversation focused on what needs to be done now to improve the velocity of freight through the port complexes. This centered on better coordination of information and efficient ways to share information as\u00a0well as needed infrastructure\u00a0investments.\u00a0\u00a0The NWSA and the Ports of Long Beach and Oakland\u00a0released a\u00a0report earlier this fall\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/nwseaportalliance.com.if-us-west-2\/prod\/2021-11\/DTCI%20NWSA%20Port%20Funding%20Final%20Report%20submitted%20Nov%203%20.pdf\">that studies<\/a>\u00a0the investment that the Canadian government has made into their maritime assets as compared to federal investments made to the West Coast ports.<\/p>\n<p>The Commissioners released <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/letter-of-commissioners-carl-bentzel-and-louis-sola-to-secretary-janet-yellen\/\">a letter<\/a>\u00a0on November 12, 2021,\u00a0raising concerns about maritime assets being sold to foreign entities, and the potential impact on the proposed sale of a U.S. rail line to a Canadian rail line,\u00a0and concerns about\u00a0the\u00a0potential\u00a0impact on U.S. and regional port competitiveness.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a country,\u00a0we need to\u00a0fully\u00a0appreciate our\u00a0maritime assets. We saw during the pandemic that the industry continued to provide essential services, even as other industries and transportation sectors such as aviation had to shut down.\u00a0 Maritime was able to continue because it connects our economy with our communities. I think that the public would be stunned to find out how many vital U.S. industries are dependent on our overseas maritime trade.\u00a0 I hope that as\u00a0Nation, that this is a wake-up call,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Commissioner\u00a0Bentzel.<\/p>\n<p>Commissioner Bentzel will begin a series of meetings in December that will focus on\u00a0supply chain\u00a0transparency aimed\u00a0at\u00a0establishing\u00a0standards for information that should be shared to the shipping public.\u00a0 The Commissioner\u2019s work on the project will culminate in\u00a0a maritime data\u00a0summit\u00a0to be held\u00a0in Spring 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Commissioner Sola will soon be releasing the final report for Fact Finding 30.<\/p>\n<p><em>Carl W. Bentzel and Louis\u00a0E. Sola are Commissioners with the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission. The thoughts and comments expressed here are their own and do not necessarily represent the position of the Commission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Federal Maritime\u00a0Commissioners Carl\u00a0W.\u00a0Bentzel and Louis E.\u00a0Sola traveled to\u00a0Washington state\u00a0the week of\u00a0November 15-19, 2021,\u00a0for meetings\u00a0with\u00a0port,\u00a0maritime,\u00a0and the cruise industry stakeholders\u00a0to discuss\u00a0pandemic-related\u00a0impacts to\u00a0those sectors and the broader issues of\u00a0port competitiveness. While in the Pacific Northwest,\u00a0the\u00a0Commissioners met with\u00a0local\u00a0Coast Guard\u00a0leadership and\u00a0toured the Puget\u00a0Sound\u00a0to\u00a0assess the\u00a0impact of\u00a0containerships\u00a0anchored\u00a0there\u00a0waiting for access to the ports.\u00a0\u00a0During\u00a0a site visit to the Port... <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"\/commissioners-bentzel-and-sola-visit-pnw-to-explore-port-congestion-cruise-industry-issues\/\">Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,31],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6150"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6151,"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6150\/revisions\/6151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}