{"id":2905,"date":"2012-05-16T07:00:10","date_gmt":"2012-05-16T11:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/?p=2905"},"modified":"2012-05-15T22:18:11","modified_gmt":"2012-05-16T02:18:11","slug":"politico-panama-canal-expansion-turns-into-money-grab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2012\/05\/16\/politico-panama-canal-expansion-turns-into-money-grab\/","title":{"rendered":"Politico: Panama Canal expansion turns into &#8216;money grab&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5595881567027133\";\r\n\/* Medium Rectangle *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"8584504377\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>From Politico&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/stories\/0512\/76224.html\" target=\"_blank\">Panama Canal expansion turns into \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcmoney grab\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/a>: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Lawmakers have used the expansion to push along bills, beg for more funding and tout their role enhancing international trade. And the canal has turned into an unlikely catchphrase for an oft-ignored port industry.<\/p>\n<p>But much stands in the way of that potential. Goods still will move faster across the country than through a full water route. The East Coast option may prove cheaper, but Panama has not said how much it will charge in tolls. And the Suez Canal already offers a venue for these larger ships.<\/p>\n<p>The truth is nobody really knows.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all a money grab,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Tom Finkbiner, senior chairman of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The competition becomes between ports and it goes to Washington and you have to justify why you are spending this money. So it becomes an excuse.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The piece notes that only Norfolks seems ready for the bigger ships.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s an interestingly cynical take on the funding process for deeper ports. As more of the national press looks at the issues involved, the arguments for widespread dredging on the East Coast are getting scrutinized &#8212; and aren&#8217;t faring very well.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"4\" style=\"float: none; margin:4px 0 4px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5595881567027133\";\r\n\/* Another large rectangle *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"0042810896\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 336;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 280;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all a money grab,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Tom Finkbiner, senior chairman of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The competition becomes between ports and it goes to Washington and you have to justify why you are spending this money. So it becomes an excuse.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2012\/05\/16\/politico-panama-canal-expansion-turns-into-money-grab\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4,62],"tags":[97,354,353,26],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1gN9R-KR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2905"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2905\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}