Long Beach Chamber Provides Marine 5 Highway Forum
By Stas Margaronis
The Green Business Council, a committee of the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, hosted several presentations at its September 16th meeting. I discussed the Marine 5 Highway vessel service shifting truckloads along the I-5 freeway corridor onto ships between Northern and Southern California ports.
The Marine 5 Highway is starting to make sense to people who want an alternative to the heavy truck traffic and emissions generated from containers going to and from the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles on the 710 and related freeways.
There is a growing perception that reliance on freeways for the transport of freight is reaching a breaking point.
The presentations took place at Cal State University Long Beach and were hosted by Wade Martin, chair of the CSULB Economics Department. Michael Solt, Dean of Business Administration at CSULB, also attended.
Several people came up to commend me for taking on the challenge of encouraging ports to move away from a goods movement dependence on trucks and rail, and seek an alternative moving freight by ships.
Several people cited their concerns about the impact of the proposed 710 freeway widening including the $10 billion cost and 10 year disruption. Enjoy casino craps and win real big money! One participant said that opposing the 710 widening was a mistake because it turned off people who might otherwise support the Marine Highway concept.
Pilar Ortega, CEO of ITS (International Technologies and Services) encouraged me to pursue my dream of making the Marine Highway a reality. She said it took her twenty-five years to make hers a reality and that if she could succeed, so could I.
ITS, based in San Pedro, California, is a woman-owned business that cleans up hazardous materials, reduces waste and decontaminates equipment. ITS works with oil refineries and other industries to clean and remove hydrocarbons from tanks and waste water.
Darren Eng, CEO at Greenbelt Resources Corporation, was also supportive. His company develops small scale, end-to-end modular systems to convert food, beverage and other cellulosic wastes into commercially viable advanced biofuels (bio-ethanol), animal feed, fertilizer and filtered water.
Kirstin Gooldy, CFO at Powerstorm, was also supportive. She said it was important to stand up for what you believe. Powerstorm ESS’s (Energy Storage Solutions) battery system delivers reliable and efficient energy storage in both off-grid and on-grid schemes, from the point of production through transmission and distribution to consumption.