The LABI Report – Dan Juneau

It is the greatest advantage Louisiana has in its economic development arsenal. Its potential is mind-boggling, and although it already has brought billions of dollars of investment to the state and thousands of high-paying jobs, its value is being woefully underutilized. The “it” is the Mississippi River.

Louisiana is blessed with more deep-water ports than any other state in the nation. What would Arizona, Ohio, Tennessee or any other state give for our deep-water ports? Yet, as valuable as they are, as a state we fail to take the steps necessary to allow them to reach their full potential.

Special interests, infighting, parochialism and lack of vision continue to diminish the value of these potential magnets for economic development.

In an ideal world, Louisiana would have one central authority to coordinate the strategies necessary to upgrade and sell our ports. Local politics and petty jealousies have never allowed that idea to succeed.

Instead, we have a myriad of port authorities all competing for precious infrastructure dollars, often trying to lure business from each other instead of working cooperatively to expand water-borne commerce for the entire state.

Our current system of port management and development serves no one well – not the state, business community, nor the ports themselves. But inertia is a powerful obstacle to overcome, and there is nothing on the horizon to indicate that our port system is going to serve our economy better anytime soon.

One example of the problems slowing down economic development at our ports will be played out in the Senate Commerce Committee this week.

A bill by Senator Jay Dardenne to create a new structure to govern pilotage on the Mississippi River will be heard. Pilots are commissioned by the state to safely guide large ocean-going vessels from the mouth of the Mississippi River all the way to Baton Rouge, and from the mouth of the Calcasieu River to Lake Charles. Pilot costs are very expensive. For example, a ship leaving the Gulf and docking anywhere north of New Orleans must pay three separate pilot fees to the three pilot associations on the Mississippi.

The pilots argue that the actual cost per mile for pilot fees on the Mississippi is lower than comparative fees in other jurisdictions. That may well be true. Unfortunately, shipping companies do not look at the cost-per-mile figure when they decide what ports to use. They look at the size of the actual check they have to write, and on the Mississippi, it is almost always larger than anywhere else.

Senator Dardenne’s bill will be strongly opposed by the pilot groups in the Commerce Committee next week. They will say, in so many words, that the system works fine and does not need to be fixed. They are wrong. Pilots serve a useful purpose in maritime commerce. Few argue to remove them from the scene. But steps must be taken to make Louisiana’s pilot costs more in line with those serving other ports, and the oversight of pilots cannot remain under the majority control of pilots themselves.

If the past is prologue on this subject, Senator Dardenne’s bill likely won’t make it out of committee next week. But the issue is not going away.

If the pilot associations took a long-term view of their best interests, they would be working diligently with industry to address all of the factors that are keeping jobs, business and opportunity away from our ports. Fewer ships mean fewer dollars to pilots, businesses and workers. Unfortunately, sometimes egos and personal gain overwhelm common sense.

DAN JUNEAU is president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry.