Introducing Ports-to-Plains’ New Intern

Ports-to-Plains Newsletter

Click Here for Spanish Version

September 30, 2010

David Eduardo Rodriguez Arzola (David Rodriguez) began an internship with the Ports-to-Plains Alliance in September. David’s primary responsibilities will be focused on gathering the data for the Rollover Map Project on the Ports-to-Plains website. This project is designed to provide the most up-to-date status reports on each highway segment along the corridor as well as current demographic data for each member’s area in a format of interest to site selectors.

David is a student at Angelo State University, College of Graduate Studies, San Angelo, Texas pursuing an MBA (Master of Business Administration). He has a Bachelor’s Degree in International Business with a minor in Customs and Logistics by Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM in Spanish). David graduated with honors and the First in Class mention, and the 9th best grade in the country in the General Examination for the graduated of the B.A. in International Business applied by the National Evaluation Center for the Higher Education (CENEVAL).

In addition, David speaks three languages including Spanish and French. He also brings Ports-to-Plains working experience in customs and logistics.  He has worked for Coeur Mexicana, subsidiary of Coeur d’Alene Mines Corporation, the world’s largest, U.S.-based publicly traded silver producer, as well as a significant gold producer as a Traffic & Customs Coordinator. David also worked for TRW Automotive as a Customs Specialist.  TRW Automotive is a company leader in automotive safety, producing advanced active systems in braking, and steering and sophisticated occupant safety systems for inflatable restraints, seats belts and steering wheels. 

David’s contact information:

David Rodriguez

Intern

Ports-to-Plains Alliance

ASU Station #10570

San Angelo, TX  76909

Phone: (405) 464-8185

Email: David.Rodriguez@portstoplains.com

Supporting Ports-to-Plains at the Local Level

Ports-to-Plains Newsletter

Click Here for Spanish Version

September 30, 2010

Construction inflation has reduced the buying power of the United States’ gas tax by 60% over the past 17 years. A dollar into the Highway Trust Fund now only purchases forty cents in highway maintenance or improvements of what it purchased in 1993, the last time the motor fuels tax was increased. Transportation Reauthorization is probably the only opportunity to increase transportation revenue for the next 6-8 years.

Using debt tools including tolling and infrastructure banks, public private partnerships and funding from the General Fund seem to be the only ideas being explored in Washington, DC and on the campaign trail.  These tools may have a place in the toolbox to increase transportation revenue for urban areas but are not the type of revenues needed to maintain and expand highways in the Ports-to-Plains Alliance region.

The Ports-to-Plains Alliance advocacy message rests on the premise that rural highways connect urban areas to markets, to resources including energy and agriculture, and to tourism opportunities.  It is narrow in vision to believe that responding to urban areas’ transportation issues with congestion relief, high speed rail and transit without increasing funding for rural connections and mobility, freight and safety addresses the nation’s transportation.  Our nation’s transportation system still requires rural highways and interstates.  It is a message that our communities need to hear.

There are few alternatives for transportation funding.  What should we do as a nation?

• Do nothing
  • A position held by few, but usually part of a belief associated with no new taxes
  • Defer Infrastructure Investment
  • At least 25% less federal transportation funding into future years
  • Pushing the cost to a later generation
• Cover the Transportation Funding Shortfall from the General Fund
  • This is what has happened in the extensions of SAFETEA-LU
  • Creates debt thereby increases deficit
  • Highway funding becomes less of a user pay system that must now compete for general tax dollars annually and more politically driven
• Increase Revenue
  • Tolling, Public Private Partnerships, Bonding and other Debt Tools provide little for rural corridors.
  • Urban areas which may benefit will still want their share of the fuel tax
  • Gas tax is the only current funding … requires 10 cents per gallon to maintain funding levels in the current transportation bill (SAFETEA-LU).

Remember that the Alliance has developed the  Ports-To-Plains Alliance SAFETEA-LU Reauthorization Recommendations to assist you in making the case.  If you need printed copies of this document please contact the Lubbock office.

You can make a difference.

Ports-to-Plains Brings Visionaries Together During 13th Annual Conference

Ports-to-Plains Newsletter

September 30, 2010

Ports-to-Plains supporters gathered in Rapid City, South Dakota for the 13th Ports-to-Plains Annual Conference September 8 – 10.  More than 100 people learned about progress made in construction, economic development success stories, energy development along the corridor and becoming actively engaged in advocacy efforts.

“It is great for all of our supporters to come together, celebrate our achievements and plan for moving forward,” said Ports-to-Plains President Michael Reeves.  “Our board and staff work very hard every day for Ports-to-Plains, and it is nice to step back every year and see what all has been accomplished.”  Keynote speakers included Kathy Ruffalo, a governmental affairs export who served as a senior policy advisor to the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, including during the passage of the last two transportation authorization bills.  Ruffalo spoke of the contentious atmosphere in Washington, and the delayed passage of new legislation reauthorizing transportation funding.  Also addressing the conference was Trent Loos, a farmer and radio personality, speaking about the importance of agriculture, not only to the economies of Ports-to-Plains communities, but to nationally.  Unfortunately, Governor Humberto Moreira Valdes was unable to attend the conference after an unforeseen scheduling conflict, but the membership of the State of Coahuila remains on track.

“President Calderon scheduled a trip to Coahuila during our conference so Gob. Moreira obviously had to stay and host the president,” said Reeves.  “We are finalizing a date in October for a formal signing ceremony and announcement about our partnership with Coahuila, and will continue working with other potential partners in Mexico.”

Attendees also had an opportunity to visit the tourist attractions of the Black Hills of South Dakota including Mount Rushmore, where the opening session, welcome reception and dinner were held, and an outing to Deadwood.

“The reception and dinner at Mount Rushmore was a wonderful way to open the conference and carry out this year’s theme…Bringing Visionaries Together,” stated Duffy Hinkle, Vice President of Membership and Marketing and event planner for the Ports-to-Plains Alliance. After dinner, conference attendees enjoyed the inspiring evening program and illumination ceremony at the Mount Rushmore amphitheater before returning to Rapid City.

On Thursday evening, attendees were transported to Deadwood (courtesy of Deadwood Gulch Resort), where guests were entertained on the bus by a local resident who portrays renowned Sheriff Seth Bullock. After arriving in Deadwood, guests enjoyed dinner and either an evening at the casino or touring the historic town. “Unfortunately, I don’t believe any of the attendees made enough money at the casino to go toward construction costs of the Ports-to-Plains Corridor,” chuckled Ms. Hinkle.

Ports-to-Plains thanks all the sponsors who supported this year’s successful event. “Without the sponsors, this annual event would not be possible and we are very appreciative,” Ms. Hinkle stated. “We are also appreciative of the Texas Department of Transportation for co-hosting this year’s event in South Dakota,” she added.

Plans are already underway for the 2011 Ports-to-Plains Annual Meeting in San Angelo, Texas. During the conference in Rapid City, San Angelo Chamber of Commerce President Phil Neighbors extended an invitation for everyone to attend next year’s event in San Angelo and showed a few of the city’s highlights with a PowerPoint presentation.

Ports-to-Plains staff will let you know as soon as the date for this event is determined so you can mark your calendar and make plans to attend.

All power point presentations from the conference in Rapid City are available online at www.portstoplains.com.

13th Ports-To-Plains Conference

Join us in the Black Hills of South Dakota for the 13th Annual Ports-to-Plains Conference

  

You are cordially invited to attend the 13th Annual Ports-to-Plains Conference scheduled for Sept. 8-10, 2010 at the place where our Alliance Partners, Heartland Expressway and Theodore Roosevelt Expressway connect - Rapid City, South Dakota. Texas Department of Transportation is co-hosting this year's event again and further demonstrating their confidence and commitment to the Ports-to-Plains Alliance.

 

Make your travel plans to be in Rapid City on the morning of September 8 for a pre-conference tour and then later that evening (5 p.m.) we will travel together to the Black Hills of South Dakota (23 miles) to have a reception and dinner with Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln and visionary leaders of the Ports-to-Plains Alliance at inspirational Mount Rushmore.  There will also be an evening spent in historic Deadwood, an old mining town where attendees will have a money making (or losing!) opportunity at the casinos.

 

Kathy Ruffalo will kick the conference off at Mount Rushmore by sharing the role of rural communities in shaping the next Transportation Reauthorization bill.  Kathy is a lobbyist for NADO on rural transportation issues. More importantly, she is a former senior staffer for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee for Chairman Max Baucus and she served on the National Surface Transportation Finance Commission last year.  She also served as transportation advisor for Governor Kempthorne in Idaho. 

 

Hear what the Ports-to-Plains Alliance is doing to look out for rural America in the next transportation reauthorization and learn more about opportunities involving tourism, energy, and agriculture. Farmer, rancher, and radio host Trent Loos is confirmed as keynote speaker during the conference and has a passion for spreading the word about the many positive things in production agriculture. Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer with a passion for the rural lifestyle.

 

The conference will conclude at noon on Friday, Sept 10.



TransCanada Seeks Pipeline Permit

The U.S. State Department is considering issuing a presidential permit for a pipeline to move oilfrom Alberta to refineries in Texas, creating thousands of new jobs in the Ports-to-Plains region,but they need to hear from you.TransCanada Company is currently seeking the presidential permit to begin construction on theKeystone XL Pipeline. It would be very beneficial for the state department to hear from Ports-to-Plains residents voicing their support for this project.

Keystone XL will create more than 13,000 high-wage construction and manufacturing jobs duringthe project’s 2011-2012 construction schedule. Many of those jobs will be created in Ports-to-Plains states and rural areas where too many residents continue to find it difficult to find goodjobs. With Keystone XL, they will have an opportunity to rebuild their lives by working on theproject or for businesses that provide supplies, goods and services for its construction andoperation.

In addition to the jobs Keystone XL will create, the project will generate substantial economicbenefits for the United States and in states and communities along the proposed route. In manycases these are areas where economic performance has stagnated or is shrinking. It is ourunderstanding that TransCanada commissioned a study to measure the project’s economicstimulus to the U.S. and the states along the route. The study found that in the U.S., Keystone XLwould generate $20.9 billion in total expenditures, $9.6 billion in output (gross product), personalincome of $6.5 billion and 118,935 person years of employment (jobs). In addition, the reportconcluded that during construction, Keystone XL would generate $486.36 million in tax revenuefor state governments along the route and $99.1 million for local taxing entities where the pipelineis located.

In Texas, the study found Keystone XL expenditures during construction would total $5.4 billionand generate an economic gross product of nearly $2.86 billion. Keystone XL construction alsowould generate more than $64.5 million in tax revenue for local government and $152 million forstate government.Furthermore, the delivery of secure and affordable supplies of Canadian energy to Americanconsumers would have minimal impacts on the environment. This is a vital project that willstrengthen U.S. energy security and reduce our dependence on unstable foreign sources of oil. Canada is already the largest supplier of energy to the United States, meeting 12 percent ofcurrent U.S. petroleum-consumption needs and representing 18 percent of U.S. petroleumimports. Canadian oil sands production is a growing source of reliable crude oil supply for theUnited States. Canada’s 175 billion barrels of oil reserves is second only to Saudi Arabia. Oilsands account for more than 97 percent of that vast reserve: 170 billion barrels of oil with thepotential for more than 100 years of production.

Canada has more than 50 percent of the non-state controlled reserves in the world. Long-termsupply is critical in a world where supply risks are growing, whether due to declining productionfrom a once-reliable source, an unstable geo-political climate, or uncertainties in key oil producingregions. Construction of additional pipeline facilities such as the Keystone XL Project, to transport oilsands production to the vitally important Gulf Coast area is critical. These refineries also haveexcess capacity as a result of reduced production from Mexico, where heavy oil production is insteep decline, and Venezuela, which is moving to other markets. Turning to Canada for a secureoil supply is a logical step.

We enthusiastically support the Keystone XL Pipeline Project and encourage the Department ofState to confirm the findings of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, which found that theproposed Keystone XL Pipeline would have “limited adverse environmental impact duringconstruction and operation.”We look forward to the issuance of a Final Environmental Impact Statement followed by aPresidential Permit that allows the construction of Keystone XL and enables our counties, theState of Texas, and the United States to collect the substantial economic benefits Keystone XLwould create.

If you would like to send a letter supporting the Keystone XL project, please address them to:

Elizabeth Orlando

Keystone XL Project Manager

U.S. Department of State

OES/ENV Room 2657

Washington, DC 20520