Kearns, James
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16 Nov 2023
Bringing the Capital Construction Fund Program Ashore
On May 5, 2023, the White House announced that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was “taking the next step to invest $3 billion in its Clean Ports Program to fund zero-emission port equipment and technology and to help ports develop climate action plans to reduce air pollutants, improve air quality and public health in neighboring communities, and advance environmental justice.” That “next…
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18 Sep 2023
Capital Construction Funds: A New Opportunity For Vessel Financing On The Inland Waterways
Recent changes have opened up the Capital Construction Fund program to owners and operators of vessels on the U.S. inland waterways.Among the programs offered by the U.S. Department of Transportation through the Maritime Administration (MARAD) to promote the growth and modernization of the U.S. maritime industry, the Capital Construction Fund (CCF) program is one that has remained largely unavailable…
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22 Mar 2023
Steps To Take Now For New Maritime Infrastructure Funding Opportunities
Much has been said both in Congress and by the current administration of the need to restore and enhance our nation’s transportation infrastructure, including its maritime transportation infrastructure. Recent legislation, such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law), the Inflation Reduction Act, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year (FY) 2023…
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25 Jan 2023
Onshore Funding for US Offshore Wind
Most of the media coverage of offshore wind development in the United States focuses on the leases of the offshore areas where the wind turbines will be located. However, equally important is the landside dimension of these projects, including the manufacture, installation, maintenance and operation of the turbines. Several awards made in the last two rounds of funding under the Port Infrastructure…
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02 May 2022
Suggestions for Making America’s Marine Highway Program More Effective
The America’s Marine Highways Program is one of several grant programs administered by the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) to promote more effective use of the nation’s navigable waterways. This particular program was established by Congress in 2007 to provide grants for projects that would promote water-borne alternatives to available landside transportation services, especially for freight carried by trucks.Consistent with this specific goal…
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03 Mar 2022
Infrastructure Funding Opportunities for Small Ports
In the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2021, Congress amended the Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) administered by the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) to reserve to smaller ports 18% of the amounts appropriated for grants under the PIDP, and increased this percentage to 25% in the NDAA for FY 2022. This replaced the minimum dollar…
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30 Aug 2021
Infrastructure Update: An Earmark By Any Other Name
After years of much talk but little action, major infrastructure funding from Congress now looks like it might actually happen. This in turn has prompted a restoration of the availability of earmarks, which had been, until about a decade ago, part and parcel of the congressional funding process. Within our nation’s inland waterways industry, hopes have been high that the rejuvenation of our country’s transportation infrastructure will include our inland waterborne commerce…
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18 Mar 2021
Congress Provides Last-minute Help for Small Inland and Coastal Ports
In two major pieces of legislation passed by Congress at the end of 2020 and the beginning of this year, Congress addressed the difficulty that many smaller inland and coastal ports have in obtaining funding for their infrastructure projects. First, on December 11, 2020 Congress passed the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (NDAA), and on January 1, 2021 overrode President Trump’s veto.
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18 May 2020
The Unsung Benefits of the Inland Waterways
With developments in the current health crisis almost entirely consuming nearly all news reporting, one could be forgiven for thinking that the members of Congress are thinking about and working on little else, and that even if they were, the divisive partisanship of recent years would doom the prospects of much else getting done. Happily, that is not the case for the nation’s inland waterways. Both…
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10 Mar 2020
The National Freight Strategic Plan and the Inland Waterways
The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act was enacted in December 2015. The FAST Act required the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to develop a National Freight Strategic Plan to address multimodal freight transportation. In the Federal Register of December 27, 2019, DOT requested information from the public, including industry trade groups, to aid development of the National Freight…
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09 May 2019
INLAND FINANCE: But I Don’t Need That Much
When enough to meet the need is not enough to get the help.From my office window in downtown St. Louis, I can see a dramatic illustration of the inefficiency in how our country moves freight. My office faces east, and I look down on a stretch of Interstate 70, that major east-west highway that runs from Baltimore to Interstate 15 in Utah. It is not unusual to see the traffic on this highway heavily congested, even at a standstill at times.
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07 Sep 2017
American Society of Civil Engineers: Not Just a Tough Grader
Within the U.S. inland waterways industry, any mention of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) will almost certainly be in reference to the “Infrastructure Report Card” that ASCE prepares and issues every four years, describing the condition and performance of America’s infrastructure in 16 categories: aviation, bridges, dams, drinking water, energy, hazardous waste, inland waterways, levees, ports, public parks, rail, roads, schools, solid waste, transit and waste water.
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28 Sep 2016
Rethinking Inland Infrastructure Finance
P3: An alternative to tolls or lockage fees in public-private partnerships for inland waterways. Within the generally sorry state of the U.S. inland waterways infrastructure, there are some locations where conditions are particularly dire. Among those in this latter situation are several locks and dams on the Illinois River, including the La Grange Lock and Dam and the Peoria Lock and Dam, both of which were completed in 1939. Both of them are on the U.S.
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10 Jun 2015
Barging Ahead in Uncharted Waters
A Real-Life Study in Creative Vessel Financing, or What Happens When Plan ‘A’ Is Not Working. Much has been written on the various structures and approaches that can be used to finance the construction and purchase of vessels. Such articles typically speak in general terms, presenting what might be called the textbook version of the approach under consideration. But what happens when reality rears its ugly head…
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18 Feb 2015
The Quest to Fund Inland Waterways
Infrastructure Projects: Perhaps Not So Quixotic After All? Over the course of 2014, significant steps forward were taken in the quest to find additional sources of funding for inland waterways infrastructure projects. First came the long awaited and much-celebrated Water Resources, Reform and Development Act of 2014 (WRRDA) in June, which included several provisions to address the funding needs of the ever-worsening condition of the inland waterways infrastructure.
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26 Nov 2014
WRRDA: Clearing the Channel for P3 Projects
Earlier this year, the U.S. maritime industry in general, and the inland waterways industry in particular, celebrated the long-awaited passage of the Water Resources…
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03 Jul 2014
WRRDA: Charting a New Course
Out of a Congress long on budgetary constraints and short on bipartisanship has come the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014 (WRRDA)—and by wide margins, no less.
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07 Jan 2014
Finding New Ways to Finance Jones Act Vessel Builds
Sustaining the ongoing boatbuilding boom can involve the lawful use of foreign finance streams. James Kearns takes a closer look at the practice. The citizenship requirements for vessels engaged in the U.S. coastwise trade are generally well-known. Such a vessel needs to be built in the United States; it must have a U.S. citizen crew or operator; and its ownership must meet specified U.S. citizenship requirements…
