Former U.S. Maritime Administrator David Matsuda has a nice op-ed in the Puget Sound Business Journal today. He notes that maritime industry stakeholders are concerned about infrastructure permitting.

According to stakeholders, recent changes to Washington state infrastructure permitting rules have lengthened the process and created more uncertainty for potential investors. These changes can have major consequences for both imports and exports through the Evergreen State.

The consequences include potential loss of competitiveness of Washington ports, which are already facing tough competition from ports in Canada and the east coast.

Additional delays and uncertainty in infrastructure permitting weigh in the favor of those other communities.

While many of the proposed projects currently subject to these delays and uncertainty happen to be ones involving energy commodities — including projects near the Port of Longview, Cherry Point just north of the Port of Bellingham and the Port of Vancouver — many in the industry are concerned that future port infrastructure projects, including container and cruise terminals or fishing or shipyard facilities, will also be put at risk or never be proposed at all. This may prevent Washington from maximizing its trade capabilities.

In 2014 we wrote about the expanded state environmental policy act reviews being undertaken by the state for the Longview, Cherry Point, and Vancouver projects.

Additionally, Matsuda was our guest for a Policy Today podcast episode in November — listen here.