Con-sen-sus (a noun): an opinion held by all or most; general agreement
-Webster’s New World Dictionary
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
Consensus may have been what Gov. Lincoln Almond was hoping for when he put together the “stakeholders group,” a collection of business, labor and environmental leaders, and asked them for guidance in developing a major shipping port at Quonset Point.
But it’s not what he’s going to get.
The stakeholders process concluded last week and now the governor is awaiting a report from the group. Almond clearly favors the development of a “large load center,” a major shipping port that proponents believe will deliver not only much needed commerce to the former Navy base at Quonset Point/Davisville, but thousands of jobs for Rhode Islanders. But as the governor knows, Rhode Islanders hold Narragansett Bay sacred and concerns about the environmental impact of such a port on the Bay have created much tension among the stakeholders.
The stakeholders process seems to have lumbered its way to the finish line and the governor is not anticipating definitive results.
Lisa Pelosi, the governor’s director of communications, said the stakeholders final report is expected to arrive at the governor’s office by the middle of April. But having followed the workings of the 50-member stakeholders group for much of the past year, it doesn’t sound like the governor is expecting clear direction from them.
“The original mission of the stakeholders group was to provide guidance as to the size and siting of the port,” said Pelosi. “As much as we appreciate the principals, we were looking for more guidance as to the specific options given to them.”
Instead of recommending a single plan for the port, the stakeholders are expected to identify a series of concepts that they all support. It is unclear what form their concerns will take. Preliminary reports suggest that the report to the governor will be much more general in nature, than specific.
Quonset Point Partners, the company hired to develop the port, has proposed a large load center that would occupy as many as 600 acres. Such a facility would serve as an entry point for international cargo bound for the Northeast and the Midwest. The developers are expected to submit plans for a port that will be able to operate without public subsidies.
With the stakeholders having wrapped up their nearly year-long work, Providence Business News asked some for their impressions of the overall process. We asked; “Did the stakeholders process accomplish what you as a member of the group hoped – or expected – that it would?”
George Nee, secretary and treasurer of the Rhode Island chapter of the AFL-CIO, called the stakeholders meetings “a very positive process.
“I think that it was an opportunity for people from some very divergent backgrounds and business groups to get together. I never believed that it would be possible to get that many disparate groups to agree on one port size or port framework. I wasn’t that that naïve. But I think it was an honest process and a tremendous amount of information was gathered.
“I believe purposeful misinformation and misconceptions that were being put forward have now been dealt with in a factual manner,” Nee said. For example, he pointed to the misuse of the term “megaport” for what is a proposal of a much smaller scale.
In the long run, Nee deemed the process a time saver. That federal regulators were involved “will ultimately – if in fact it is deemed permissible – save a lot of time,” he said. “A lot of the information that was gathered in the process can now be used by them (regulators) in making their determination.”
The process was also useful in that “we determined through some independent consulting reports that it would be an economically viable opportunity for Rhode Island to build a port,” Nee said. “A lot of questions have been answered that I think will help us to move forward.”
Aimee Tavares, vice president of communications for the Environmental Council of Rhode Island, had mixed feelings about the process.
“I was actually very hopeful that the process would come to a consensus on the size and scope of the port,” Tavares said, adding “I know that was a lofty goal.”
“However, we did gather a lot of good and useful information.”
Nancy Logan, a Jamestown resident on the Quonset-Davisville Liaison Committee, wasn’t exactly pleased with the results. Nor was she surprised.
“The group never really was able to reach a consensus for the type of port for the governor. I don’t see how they could have accomplished anything more unless they had come up with two separate proposals,” Logan said.
“It would have been a miracle if it had turned out differently,” she said.
Ralph Boragine, executive director of the Rhode Island Seafood Council, said that the process “had value.
“However, the baseline data was not good information. Speaking from a very narrow viewpoint, which is the seafood industry, the data was extremely sparse and I really don’t think much effort was made to get the data that would be most telling.”
He said a report by the Science Applications International Corporation was the exception. Boragine said that report was the only one that had sufficient and accurate information reflecting the fishing industry’s role near Quonset.
