SAVANNAH, Ga. — The Port of Savannah hopes to add another prominent supporter of deepening its busy shipping channel when Vice President Joe Biden visits its docks Monday. Hours earlier, Biden is scheduled to bring a similar message of growing jobs by investing in U.S. seaports to the Port of Charleston, S.C., which has harbor expansion plans of its own.
Biden scheduled back-to-back trips to the ports, which are both among East Coast ports scrambling for federal permits and funding to make room for supersized cargo ships expected to begin arriving in 2015 through an expanded Panama Canal. The timing of Biden’s visit ensures both Georgia and South Carolina can claim White House support without the Obama administration appearing to favor one over the other.
One former port executive who’s very familiar with the longstanding rivalry between the two seaports, which operate barely 100 miles apart, said he’s suspects the administration squeezed both ports into Biden’s schedule intentionally with at least some knowledge of their competitive — and sometimes combative — history.
South Carolina officials in the state Legislature and the courts have tried to stop or at least stall Georgia’s plans to deepen more than 30 miles of the Savannah River until a settlement was reached in April. The river forms a shared boundary between the states, and is also the gateway for cargo ships to reach the Savannah port.
via Biden avoids favoritism by visiting Ga., SC ports | www.myajc.com.
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