Ports-to-Plains Alliance 2013 Federal Transportation Policy Paper

NORTH AMERICA’S NORTH AMERICA’S NORTH AMERICA’S

ENERGY AND AGRICULTURAL CORRIDORENERGY AND AGRICULTURAL CORRIDORENERGY AND AGRICULTURAL CORRIDOR

North America’s

Agricultural Heartland

North America’s

Oil & Gas Corridor

United States

Wind Corridor

North America’s

Energy Pipeline Corridor

A RURAL CORRIDOR OF NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE

The north-south movement of goods and persons through the nine-state Ports-to-Plains Alliance Corridor relies on an existing 2,333-mile network of mostly two-lane highways. These highways are a part of the National Highway System. Moreover, in recognition of the importance of this corridor, its entire length--from the Mexico border to the Canadian border--has been designated by federal law as National Highway System High Priority Corridors: the Ports-to-Plains Corridor (#38), the Heartland Expressway (#14), the Theodore Roosevelt Expressway (#58), and the Camino Real Corridor (#27). Unfortunately, the existing north-south highway network in our corridor is inadequate to meet the current and future needs of the region and the nation and faces a number of significant challenges: The corridor needs greater capacity to carry the growing levels of traffic and commerce.

• Our corridor runs through 4 of the top 8 farm states that produce $23 billion of agricultural goods, or 19.5% of all U.S. agriculture products. The food produced in this region is destined for cities and towns throughout the United States. Truck movements along the corridor, which will grow significantly in the future, are a critical part of the agricultural distribution network.

• Our corridor also serves 7 of the top 10 oil producing states and 5 of the top 6 natural gas producing states. Development of these traditional energy resources, which are essential to our nation’s energy security, is booming up and down the corridor. This is putting tremendous pressure on the north-south highway network. For example, developing just one oil well requires an estimated 2,300 truck movements.

• Our corridor serves the top 6 nationwide and 8 of the top 10 installed wind generation states,

generating over 6,000 MW, or nearly 77.8 percent of the U.S. total. A single wind tower requires 126 trucks for major parts, including the crane, concrete or rebar. One planned wind farm in West Texas would install more than 2,600 towers, and put more than 21,000 trucks and 42,000 pilot cars on the highways in and out of the site. Developing the growing renewable energy industry is critical to our national security and economic growth. This energy generated in our corridor will feed into the national grid benefitting all Americans.

• Our corridor serves 27.6 percent of the Nation’s ethanol refining capacity. Production of renewable fuels is expected to increase significantly over the coming decades, putting additional stress on the corridor’s transportation network. Again, the ethanol produced in our corridor will benefit all Americans.

• Our corridor is home to some of our most popular national parks. The travel and tourism

associated with these parks is growing, putting additional traffic on the corridor’s highway network. The result has been seasonal bottlenecks and “hot spots” leading to these parks.

• Our corridor is also feeling the effects of increased international trade with Canada and Mexico.

We are a major U.S. trading region, generating $280.4 billion in trade with Canada and Mexico, nearly 25.4% of total U.S.-North America trade. Much of this trade results in freight movement up and down the corridor, including spillover traffic from heavily-congested parallel corridors.

• The bottom line: To promote economic security and prosperity throughout America's energy and

agricultural heartland, the north-south highway network in our corridor must be upgraded and modernized.

The corridor must be modernized to safely accommodate today’s trucks.

• The two-lane highways that make up most of the existing north-south network in the corridor are simply not designed to carry the number of trucks, especially heavy trucks, currently being experienced up and down the corridor.

• Moreover, these roads are not geometrically designed to accommodate large trucks, especially

the trucks carrying energy-related equipment.

Picture sequence above is a wind turbine blade being transported around the courthouse in Boise City, Oklahoma

The corridor must be upgraded to keep U.S. agriculture competitive.

• The crops produced by the farms along the corridor are a key international export. Canada is the leading destination for agricultural exports, followed by Mexico. With expected growth in United States and world populations, assisting the competitiveness of U.S. agriculture is vitally important.

The corridor must have greater connectivity for its communities.

• The two-lane, antiquated highways in the corridor have resulted in a lack of adequate connectivity, which is impeding the potential for economic growth in the region. This region needs a four-lane modern north-south highway.

• A modern, efficient and safe transportation facility will promote economic development in a

region of the country that has the highest rate of population loss over the last decade and ensure that America’s heartland and its communities are connected to America.

The corridor must be safe.

• From a safety perspective, the current situation on the north-south highway in the corridor is unsatisfactory. The mix of vehicles travelling up and down the corridor is frightening: large agricultural vehicles, oversized flatbeds carrying wind turbine components, local residents heading to work or school, heavy trucks serving the energy-extraction industries, out-of-state visitors from across America heading to the national parks, and trucks carrying international freight to or from Canada or Mexico. And all of this on two-lane, narrow roads that were not designed for this type of traffic or these types of vehicles.

• Accidents will be significantly reduced on current two-lane segments of the corridor when they are upgraded to four-lane-divided highway. Rural roads are dangerous and improving them saves lives. Each year, more than 42,000 Americans are killed and nearly 3 million are injured on our nation’s roadways. The total economic cost of these crashes exceeds $230 billion annually.

• Unfortunately, nearly 60 percent of highway fatalities typically occur on two-lane rural roads.

When adjusted for vehicle miles traveled, according to the GAO, some rural roads have a fatality rate over six times greater than urban interstates. These facts are extremely troubling since only 40 percent of all vehicle miles are traveled on two-lane rural roads.

A STRONG FEDERAL ROLE

The Ports-to-Plains Alliance supports modernizing our Nation’s surface transportation network, including the upgrading of multi-state rural highway corridors, to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Given the urgency and magnitude of this undertaking, it is imperative that the Federal Government be the strong partner that it has been in the past. From the First Congress' support of lighthouses, buoys and public piers to make navigation "easy and safe;" to Henry Clay's support for internal improvements; to President Lincoln's support for the transcontinental railroad; to President Teddy Roosevelt's support of the Panama Canal; to President Franklin Roosevelt's support for a cross-country, high-level road system; to President Eisenhower's support of the Interstate Highway System and the Federal Highway Trust Fund; and to President Reagan's support for increased motor fuel user fees to preserve and modernize the Federal-aid highway network; the Federal Government has been instrumental in the development of our Nation's surface transportation system. This system unifies our country by providing for the easy movement of people and goods. As President Eisenhower noted, without it, "we would be a mere alliance of many separate parts.” The Federal Government must provide the leadership and resources to help preserve and modernize the national surface transportation network for the 21st century.

PORTS-TO-PLAINS RECOMMENDATIONS

With the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) set to expire on September 30, 2014, the 113th Congress will need to reauthorize the program by that date. While we recognize that much of the reauthorization work will take place next year, we offer at this time our thoughts on the direction that the reauthorization should take. Recommendation #1: Aggressive Oversight of MAP-21 MAP-21 made many important policy reforms. The cumulative impact of these reforms were intended to give states greater flexibility to address priority needs on the national surface transportation network and allow them to deliver projects more efficiently and more quickly. The Ports-to-Plains Alliance supports aggressive congressional oversight to ensure that the Administration implements MAP-21 in accordance with congressional intent and that increased state flexibility does not undermine investment in the national surface transportation network, especially multi-state rural corridors. Recommendation #2: Fix the Highway Trust Fund There is a looming Highway Trust Fund deficit. The challenge will be to develop a long-term fix for the Trust Fund that provides a stable, adequate revenue stream sufficient to facilitate the modern, efficient, and safe national surface transportation system that America needs. In Roll Call, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster described the challenge as follows:

With the Highway Trust Fund facing its own version of a fiscal cliff in the coming years, we must find a way to pay for transportation improvements without borrowing from our children. We cannot borrow our way to a better future. We must work together, listen to all ideas and opinions, and build a consensus on what is best for America and our future prosperity.

The Ports-to-Plains Alliance agrees. Forging a consensus on a long-term solution is critical. Recommendation #3: Increase Overall Investment It is not enough to simply make the Highway Trust Fund solvent. Virtually every study, including studies by two bipartisan national commissions established by Congress, has concluded that there must be a significant increase in investment from the federal, state, and local governments, as well as the private sector. Recognizing that preserving and upgrading our national transportation infrastructure will be costly, we support significantly increased transportation investment and continued user financing through the Highway Trust Fund. We agree that a consensus must be forged on the best way pay for the increased investment. We are prepared to support a reasonable solution that addresses the needs of rural transportation corridors like the Ports-to-Plains Corridor in a fair and equitable manner.

Recommendation #4: Focus Resources to Achieve Network Benefits The Federal program should go back to its roots by focusing its resources on upgrading our national highway system on a network basis. There is no greater example of the benefits that can accrue to the Nation from system-wide transportation improvements than the Interstate Highway System. It is a big reason why America is as prosperous as it is today. The challenge for the future will be upgrading the key portions of the National Highway System, including rural freight/energy corridors, to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. This would require sustained, adequate investment that produces network effects, as opposed to ad hoc local improvements. The investment should raise the productivity of the system as a whole, as was the case with the Interstate Highway System. The Interstate Construction Program, built on a federal-state partnership and a cost-to-complete basis, could serve as a model.

Recommendation #5: Ensure Focused Resources For Critical Rural Freight/Energy Corridors Rural freight corridors, especially rural corridors that are critical to energy development, like the Ports-to-Plains Alliance Corridor, must be a key focus of the next reauthorization bill. This could be accomplished in a number of ways:

• A cost-to-complete type of system-wide improvement program as discussed above; • A separate freight highway program, with adequate resources set aside for rural freight/energy

corridors; or • A targeted rural freight/energy corridor investment program backed up by adequate resources.

To the extent the next bill relies on innovative financing (PPPs, tolling, pricing, enhanced-credit facilities), it is important to remember that these options do not generally help rural corridors. Most of these options require that the project generate a revenue stream (usually tolls) to repay the investment, which is not an option in most rural corridors. Therefore, to the extent the bill gives urban areas increased financing flexibility, it should also take steps to require that states give priority to rural corridors in obligating its federal highway grants.

PORTS-TO-PLAINS ALLIANCE MISSION STATEMENT

The Ports-to-Plains Alliance is a non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots alliance of communities and businesses whose mission is to advocate for a robust transportation infrastructure to promote economic security and prosperity throughout North America's energy and agricultural heartland. Today, we collaborate with our federal and state leaders, partners in Canada and Mexico, and industry partners, to deliver the infrastructure, food and fuel to secure the quality of life of America's great cities. At the same time, we embrace America's new energy economy, and are capitalizing upon oil, gas, wind power, biofuels and other innovation sectors to renew one of America's greatest legacies, the rural heartland.

ALLIANCE HEADQUARTERS

5401 N MLK Blvd. #395 Lubbock TX 79403 Ph: 806-775-3373

PORTS-TO-PLAINS ALLIANCE STAFF

Michael Reeves President Ports-to-Plains Alliance Ph: 806-775-2338 [email protected] Joe Kiely Vice President of Operations Ports-to-Plains Alliance Ph: 303-586-1787 [email protected] Duffy Hinkle Vice President of Membership & Marketing Ports-to-Plains Alliance Ph: 806-755-3373 [email protected]

Jacque Daly Executive Assistant Ports-to-Plains Alliance Ph: 806-775-3369 [email protected] Cal Klewin Executive Director Theodore Roosevelt Expressway Ph: 701-523-6171 [email protected] Marlin Johnson Communications Director Heartland Expressway Association Ph: 307-331-9313 [email protected]