That was a rhetorical question, right?
“The airbus A380 was a mistake …” Yes, a commercial mistake. The airlines paid dearly for that mistake. It did not fail because the FAA called dispatch an hour before arrival at JFK and ordered them to pay a tax to continue or divert to St. Louis.
And there weren’t any A380s abandoned at the gate with the crew panhandling baggage handlers for lunch money either.
Yes and no.
Yes, it’s obvious taxpayers are paying billions to support mega corporations (not just in shipping) and bending over backwards to do so (look at amazon’s tax breaks to move to new york city).
No because I honestly don’t know why we are supporting msc, cma cgm, cosco and maersk. I know how amazon gets it’s influence in Washington but I don’t know how these big foreign shipping companies are buying influence. They don’t own the Washington Post, their lobbyists aren’t funneling billions (that I can see) into washington like Amazon’s, they aren’t even using most of the ports that they “forced” to upgrade for megaships (e.g. Boston) so They aren’t paying huge taxes to the local economy or creating many jobs (which is how amazon strong arms states to push federal agendas).
Their lobbyists are funneling cash into the politicians and publicists who promote those pork barrel schemes because they buy votes.
Florida is gridlocked?
That information is already widely available for anyone who looks. The problem is no one looks.
FOC vessels coming to the US are already subject to the same regulations as US vessels visiting foreign ports.
I tend to agree, but I’d think to look at Maersk for example. Where does Maersk end and the government of Denmark begin? That’s a blurry line. There’s lots of history of fiscal shenanigans between the two. I truly don’t know how ingrained France is in CMA-CGM’s pocketbook, but would anyone be shocked if there was more-than-stated relationship there? The EU is VERY good at exploiting loopholes to liberalize the definition of ‘state owned’ into ‘state influenced.’ It was a huge sticking point at the ICCAT convention prior to the US becoming a signatory, though strangely it never makes the notes. China at least IS the state owner, at the end of the day, of COSCO. I don’t believe the EU-owned mega carriers are much different. It explains nicely why they have power and influence and yet lobbyists are thin on the ground.
With all those lovely subsidies in NY/NJ, shame that Maersk stopped using the Howland Hook Terminal so abruptly, and rather than start using it again, sits at anchor and waits for berths a mile away in Elizabeth.
Florida can’t handle the super sized ships but they can help alleviate some of the pressure from the west coast ports, just like the rest of the east and gulf coast ports can do.
Norfolk, NY, and Savannah can take the giants at least.
Oh but they will try … and the taxpayer will pay in cash and gas consumed parked at rail crossings because there is no place to make up the trains that are supposed to carry all those boxes away. The trains block all E/W traffic for hours each day.
This is the most questionable port expansion I’ve seen so far. The cranes are telescopic because of their proximity to the airport flight path, the turning basin off the container port is so tight that these new generation ships will need to back out to the main harbor to turn, and not a single Port Everglades pilot I talked to over the years going in and out of there were excited about the prospect of bigger ships in their tiny little port.
But the mayor and the local politicians are salivating over the thought of getting a piece of the action. The mayor is talking to Elon Musk about boring a tunnel under the river for trains because the existing bridge is down for so long now it blocks access to and from all the megyacht yards upriver … and those people have money and connections so the mayor is being squeezed. For some reason he seems to have a bromance thing for Elon, he is also planning another tunnel from downtown Fort Lauderdale to the beach.
Considering the Swiss cheese coral rock South Florida is built on Elon would be better advised to build an elevated train. Stiltsville is coming back !
They forgot to mention that the final hold for loading, number 3 hold, is clear of the stowed cranes. Nice layout.
This appointment is an effing joke. Zero meaningful experience. Too much Navy bureaucracy experience that can only be a hinderance to being an effective Maritime Administrator. This woman’s only qualification for the job is that she is a woman.
This appointment is a perfect example of how inept our government has become.
I’d settle for inept, the reality is far worse.
When I lived in Fort Lauderdale (a few decades ago), one of the biggest pains was trying to get around town because of all of the draw bridges. . . .
Here you go Lee:
If this ever gets to a hearing or other breaking news please start a new thread to discuss. Getting repetitive off topic flags or trolling depending on how you look at it.
