The inland waterways system is “the natural gem of the United States,” but water transportation isn’t in the public eye as much as highway, rail and air transport, said Deb Calhoun, who serves as both senior vice president of Waterways Council Inc. (WCI) and secretary of the National Waterways Foundation (NWF).
That’s why the NWF, the research arm of the inland waterways community, sponsored the Eno Center for Transportation’s study titled “Benefits and Beneficiaries of the Nation’s Inland Waterways.”
The Eno Center led a webinar February 26 which featured an open discussion of the report.
The National Waterways Foundation report released this month on U.S. waterways’ economic competitiveness is very timely, coming as it does after news about ramped-up investment in U.S. waterways infrastructure.
The United States is blessed with the most extensive developed inland waterway system in the world, well-positioned to drain a huge area of fertile farmland.
It can’t be repeated too often: even though water transportation can and will get greener and improve its carbon emissions, it is already by far the greenest mode of transportation by the ton-mile, even in its current state, because of its inherent energy efficiencies.