8/5/2009 6:00:00 PM Port expansion could
be boon for region
By T.J. JERNIGAN Staff Reporter
Major improvements to the state port at Gulfport and expansion of the Panama Canal will make east Mississippi an attractive location for major warehousing, Gov. Haley R. Barbour said during his annual porch chat with area newspaper editors and publishers on Thursday afternoon at the Neshoba County Fair.
The port was the third largest container port in the U.S. before Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but increasing the capacity and efficiency will be a huge benefit to the whole country, Barbour said.
The $1.6 billion expansion project that will elevate the port 25 feet above sea level will increase the port's capacity to handle more and bigger ships
Raising the elevation not only makes the port safer and more storm resistant but also allows the bigger ships to come in and increases the capacity of the port without greatly increasing its size.
Congestion on the West Coast is a major reason Barbour thinks the expansion is important.
Container ships can sit for days waiting to be unloaded off the California coast.
Barbour envisions Gulfport becoming a gateway to the Midwest, particularly, and helping to untangle the logjam of freight trains leaving California.
With three national railroad lines (Kansas City Southern, Canadian Northern, and Nortfolk Southern) all meeting in Hattiesburg, Mississippi's port would be a major national intermodal asset, Barbour said.
"This will allow us to offload freight at the port and carry it to Hattiesburg in less than two hours. That will make all of east Mississippi and the Canadian National lines in Jackson very attractive places for major warehouses," he said.
Larger ships will begin to come through the Panama Canal when it is complete in 2015 and those ships will be looking for a port, Barbour said.
Houston and Tampa's ports are nearly full. "Gulfport and Mobile are probably the two best looking ports for those ships," he said.
Port of Gulfport, which was severely damaged during Hurricane Katrina, is a bulk, break-bulk and container seaport that currently encompasses 204 acres, has nearly 6,000 feet of berthing space and averages over two million tons of cargo a year shipping over 200,000 TEU'S. The port has gained a solid reputation as the second largest importer of green fruit in the United States.
The port plans to build on 20 acres on the West Pier using $22.5 million in federal funds provided for Hurricane Katrina relief. The project kicked off last month with a groundbreaking ceremony.
Barbour has set aside $570 million in Community Development Block Grant funds to elevate the port to 25 feet above sea level.
Permits for the elevation and expansion, however, are still an estimated seven years away.
Kemper Coal Plant
The governor spoke briefly about the Kemper County lignite coal plant and said that he is very hopeful that the PSC decision comes through in a timely matter before federal money becomes unavailable.
"The plant in Kemper County will be the first of its kind in the US, and it will set an example of how this IGCC technology will work," he said. "Hopefully it will work great."
He said the opposing position that groups like the Sierra Club have taken is "silly, pig-headed, and blind-eyed."
"The Sierra Club doesn't want any more coal power plants in the US, but we will be burning coal for decades, whether the Sierra Club likes it or not."
Barbour announces
his role in the GOP
"My first role and responsibility is as governor, and I take that seriously."
I became the president of the Republican Governors Association this summer and will be chairman until 2010, so my main goal to elect Republican governors."
He said that with 37 governors races in 2010, he intends to spend virtually all the political time he has available to try to elect republican governors.
"Right now, I'm a fundraiser and helper," Barbour said.
Concerns about
the state budget
The governor said it is not too soon to start thinking about a budget for next fiscal year and even down the road.
"I believe the number of people working will continue to go down and unemployment will continue to rise at an irregular pace," he said. "The likelihood is that tax revenues will continuously go down."
Knowing the stimulus money will run out, he said the state needs to have two trains of thought about budget.
He said state legislators should consider appropriate budget cuts while the state is still getting stimulus money, and in addition, much more thought should be given to how the state will settle its budget when federal money disappears.
"We will hit a budget cliff, particularly in education and Medicaid. The Medicaid cliff will occur in January 2011 and the education cliff will occur in the summer of 2011 when FY2012 starts," he said.
He added that the state can not have a business-as-usual budget for FY 2012 unless there is a far more dramatic economic recovery.
Barbour criticizes
Obama administration
Barbour said that the more people find out about Obama's healthcare reform and energy packages, the more they will oppose them.
He said President Obama is personally far more popular than his policies, and that Americans have grown very concerned about the "change" that Obama's administration set to bring about.
He said "unheard-of" levels of spending have more than doubled the federal deficit and by Obama's budget there will be a trillion dollar deficit every ten years.
"People know you can't spend yourself rich," he said.
"Obama's policies regarding healthcare and energy are in the way the most left wing ever attempted by any American president in history."
