by Paul Quinlan
A prominent, nonpartisan spending watchdog group dubbed Rep. Ed Whitfield's (R-Ky.) bill to overhaul the nation's system of locks, dams and waterways a "riverboat ripoff" -- a sign of the uphill battle the legislation faces in Congress.
Taxpayers for Common Sense gave the bill (H.R. 4342), a barge-industry-authored plan for updating the aging U.S. waterway infrastructure, its "Golden Fleece Award" because the proposal seeks to boost federal spending for a barge transportation system critics say is already 90 percent federally subsidized.
"While the rest of the country is trying to find ways to trim the fat, Congressman Whitfield is trying to pad the wallets of barge companies," Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, said in a statement issued this afternoon that included a link to a detailed analysis. "Now that the space shuttle is retired, inland waterways are the most heavily subsidized form of transportation, but they still want more. That makes us shake our heads. This riverboat ripoff is a Golden Fleece."
The bill is called the "WAVE4 Act," for Waterways are Vital for the Economy, Energy, Efficiency and Environment. It represents the barge industry's effort to take its fight with the Obama administration -- which has proposed raising fees on shippers to generate $1 billion for waterways investments in the next decade -- directly to Congress (Greenwire, Oct. 30, 2011).
While the proposal would raise fuel taxes on shippers from 20 cents to 26 cents per gallon, it would also shift some heavy costs of the system, which are now split by federal government and industry, entirely onto the feds.
Industry contends the shift is fair, because barge shippers now share in horrendous project cost overruns resulting from the inefficiencies of the congressional appropriations process and federal mismanagement of lock, dam and waterway projects along the nation's 12,000 miles of navigation waterways.
The worst example of such an overrun is the Ohio River Olmsted Locks and Dam project. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimated the project would cost $775 million when it began in 1988. Recently, the corps updated its cost estimate to $3.1 billion and said work could stretch on for another decade or more.
Whitfield has called the project, which is located in his district, a "complete failure."
The Kentucky Republican and chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power introduced the bill last month with bipartisan support from his co-sponsors, Reps. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.), John Duncan (R-Tenn.), Tim Johnson (R-Ill.) and Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) (E&ENews PM, March 30).
The Waterways Council, lobbying arm for the industry and author of the legislation, did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.
In response to the spending watchdog group's announcement, Whitfield's office issued this statement: "Efficient and reliable transportation of goods on our inland waterways is essential to economic development, job creation, and remaining competitive in the global marketplace. Our aging infrastructure jeopardizes efficient waterborne commerce and highlights the need for the WAVE4 Act. This bill is a starting point for that debate, and all of us involved in it have cast it in that light."
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