11 Oct 2001 Economic Working Group Meeting Report

The Economic Working Group of the SEG met Thursday, October 11, 2001 @ USACE, 3rd floor conference room.

Those in attendance were as follows:

Agenda items were approved by the attendees as follows:

  1. Design Vessel
  2. Discussion about a speaker on Natural Res.valuation for an EWG meeting.
  3. Fleet Projections White Paper

I.) Design Vessel

GPA and the USACE came to a point of closure with this item. Specifications are as follows:

It was selected because this actually is a vessel on order by Maersk. The ports of NYC, Norfolk and Savannah will be receiving this type of vessel in the near future. (Most likely this would be the largest vessel to call on the Port of Sav'h.) EWG came to consensus after a long discussion to adopt this to use as a design vessel. Also, because some regular attendees were absent.....Mr. Morgan Rees stated that he would contact Mr. Will Berson to relay this data to him for his agency's thoughts on these specifications.

II) Obtaining a speaker for a future meeting of the EWG on Natural Resources Valuation

Dr. Richard McGrath was contacted by Judy Jennings. He would like to talk to the EWG . He was unavailable to speak to the EWG today. Mr. Ray Rhodes of South Carolina was emailed by Judy Jennings. He would also like to speak to the EWG but, due to budget constraints at his agency he is unable to travel without reimbursement arrangements. The USFWS and GA DNR would like to pursue this option of a speaker; Dave Kyler will contact them and investigate the possibility of one or both of these agency's sponsoring a possible forum on NR Valuation.

III) Fleet Projection White Paper

Assumption A = "No bulk vessel fleet growth, loading facilities are too constrained." The EWG came to consensus to agree with this assumption.

Assumption B = " Container vessel size will increase" The EWG came to consensus to agree with this assumption.

Assumption C = " Foreign ports will continue to invest in necessary infrastructure" The EWG came to consensus to agree with this assumption.

Assumption D = "Sufficient demand exists to fill larger vessels at the same level of frequency of service" The EWG came to consensus to defer any extended discussion of this assumption due to federal budget constraints in light of the events of 9/11/01. It should be revisited when final economic analysis decision is made. EWG will monitor trends and data as available.

Assumption E = " Trends in Savannah fleet will reflect trends in world fleet" After a very long discussion, the EWG came to the following consensus about this assumption.... "Assumption E of the Fleet Projections White Paper should be analyzed and studied to define and clarify it's true meaning. Morgan Rees will look back at section 4.2 of the feasibility study and report back to the EWG.

Discussion was halted at 4:40pm. The remainder of the Fleet Projection White Paper will be discussed at the next meeting of the EWG. A tentative date was set for November 15, 2001 @ 9am. Meeting was adjourned @ 4:45pm.

Respectfully Submitted,

John T. Shelby, League of Women Voters of Sav'h/Chatham

11/09/2001