{"id":6364,"date":"2022-02-11T12:28:53","date_gmt":"2022-02-11T16:28:53","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=6364"},"modified":"2022-02-11T13:14:29","modified_gmt":"2022-02-11T17:14:29","slug":"statement-of-chairman-maffei-on-pierpass-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/statement-of-chairman-maffei-on-pierpass-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement of Chairman Daniel B. Maffei on Proposed PierPass Change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On January\u00a024, 2022, the West Coast Marine Terminal Operator Agreement\u00a0(WCMTOA)\u00a0counsel\u00a0filed\u00a0an amendment to the agreement that would make\u00a0permanent\u00a0an incentive program for\u00a0off-peak\u00a0gate use that\u00a0was set to\u00a0expire on January 31.\u00a0\u00a0Agreement parties claim that they were\u00a0asking for this extension at the request of President Biden\u2019s Port Envoy.<\/p>\n<p>I fully support\u00a0the President\u2019s Port Envoy and his efforts to work with the industry to find ways to reduce congestion including an incentive for greater\u00a0off-peak\u00a0gate use.\u00a0 However,\u00a0neither he nor others\u00a0advocating\u00a0off-peak\u00a0gate incentives\u00a0could have known\u00a0that\u00a0PierPass\u2019 proposed fee structure generates revenue well\u00a0above what is currently required to implement the\u00a0program\u00a0in a revenue-neutral manner.\u202f\u00a0PierPass\u00a0claims to be\u00a0cooperating with President Biden\u2019s\u00a0Port\u00a0Envoy but\u00a0apparently\u00a0only\u00a0if\u00a0it\u00a0can\u00a0rake in\u00a0millions more in profits paid for by\u00a0American importers.<\/p>\n<p>PierPass\u00a0was initially designed to encourage a broader distribution of truck traffic to reduce congestion and mitigate truck emissions.\u00a0 The Traffic Mitigation Fee\u00a0(or TMF)\u00a0was put in place to help the terminal operating members of WCMTOA pay for the cost of keeping gates open\u00a0during off-peak hours\u00a0and create an incentive to use those hours.\u00a0 However, as the years have passed, the connection between\u00a0PierPass\u00a0and those goals has\u00a0become\u00a0increasingly\u00a0elusive.\u00a0\u00a0Before\u00a0the involvement of the Port Envoy,\u00a0PierPass\u00a0had given up any semblance of having congestion-related pricing to help incentivize better traffic flow.\u00a0 Today, it collects a Traffic\u00a0Mitigation\u00a0Fee\u00a0that\u00a0mitigates no traffic.\u00a0\u00a0Purportedly, it\u00a0pays for WCMTOA\u2019s members to provide\u00a0off-peak\u00a0gate options.\u00a0 However,\u00a0PierPass\u2019\u00a0operations are so opaque that it is unclear to me that it provides any public benefit that would justify\u00a0its\u00a0antitrust exemption.<\/p>\n<p>Due to these concerns, I have asked for a full\u00a0Commission meeting as soon as practicable to consider\u00a0potential FMC investigations or actions concerning\u00a0the WCMTOA amendment as well as the underlying agreement.\u00a0 In the meantime, WCMTOA\u2019s amendment and request for expedited review remain under FMC consideration.<\/p>\n<p>The current congestion at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach remains a threat to the\u00a0Nation\u2019s economic vitality and a serious problem for thousands of importers and exporters.\u00a0\u00a0It can only be solved through positive collective action,\u00a0and many stakeholders at the\u00a0Nation\u2019s biggest port complex have made contributions, sometimes being willing to sacrifice for the greater good.\u00a0\u00a0PierPass\u00a0seems to be an exception.\u00a0\u00a0I know of no change or idea that\u00a0PierPass\u00a0has\u00a0ever offered to help ease\u00a0COVID-related congestion and, to be fair,\u00a0it\u2019s possible\u00a0PierPass\u00a0simply\u00a0is\u00a0not\u00a0in a position\u00a0to help much.\u00a0 However,\u00a0far from\u00a0contemplating\u00a0a sacrifice, this amendment\u00a0seems to be\u00a0an attempt to profit from\u00a0a national crisis.\u00a0\u00a0I urge\u00a0the\u00a0WCMTOA\u00a0parties\u00a0to consider more public-spirited actions.<\/p>\n<p><em>Daniel B. Maffei is a Commissioner with the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission. The thoughts and comments expressed here are his own and do not necessarily represent the position of the Commission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On January\u00a024, 2022, the West Coast Marine Terminal Operator Agreement\u00a0(WCMTOA)\u00a0counsel\u00a0filed\u00a0an amendment to the agreement that would make\u00a0permanent\u00a0an incentive program for\u00a0off-peak\u00a0gate use that\u00a0was set to\u00a0expire on January 31.\u00a0\u00a0Agreement parties claim that they were\u00a0asking for this extension at the request of President Biden\u2019s Port Envoy. I fully support\u00a0the President\u2019s Port Envoy and... <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"\/statement-of-chairman-maffei-on-pierpass-change\/\">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":[10],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6364"}],"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=6364"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6367,"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6364\/revisions\/6367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fmc.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}