Editorial: Port of Sacramento - The Sacramento Bee

Editorial: Port of Sacramento - The Sacramento Bee: "
This story is taken from Opinion at sacbee.com.



Editorial: Port of Sacramento
Oakland to the rescue

Published 2:15 am PST Monday, November 14, 2005
'It takes 100 gallons of fuel to take stuff from here \ to the Woodland Target store. From Sacramento, it could be 10 gallons.'
Those huge differences in fuel costs as described by Wilson Lacy, the Port of Oakland's director of maritime operations, explain in a nutshell why the Port of Oakland finds a partnership with the Port of Sacramento so attractive.
Jampacked Oakland is searching for ways to unload cargo and get it moving faster. With highways and freight trains overloaded, barges to Sacramento look increasingly like a way for shippers to save money and time.
Oakland's urgent need to expand may rescue the long ailing Port of Sacramento. The money-losing West Sacramento shipping facility has been close to bankruptcy for years. However, to take advantage of the opportunity Oakland offers, the local port must fix its muddled governance structure. After years of false starts, that is beginning to happen. Officials in the city of Sacramento, Sacramento County, West Sacramento and Yolo County have all signed a letter of intent that will turn control of the port over to West Sacramento.
That plan, which requires legislative approval, appeared to run into trouble two months ago. Some powerful Southern California legislators backed by the Longshoremen's union indicated they might not support the change. Since then, however, a local lawmaker, Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden, has signaled his support for the West Sacramento takeover; and legislative opposition seems to have evaporated. That's good.
Still, nothing is easy here. When and if Oakland moves into "