Further evidence of the arrival of spring is the clearing of ice from the sea lanes, the end of winter layup and refit and the departure of the Winter Fleet from the port of Sturgeon Bay.
At great peril of advancing my nerdishness I marvel at the beauty and economic efficiency of these big lakers as they ply their trade on the largest body of freshwater lakes on the planet.
If you were my client this recovering financial guy would share that every year more than 260 million metric tons of raw materials such as coal, iron ore, agricultural products and manufactured goods are transported on the Great Lakes / St. Lawrence Seaway System.
In one single shipping season the Great Lakes-Seaway system generates $77.4 billion ($100 billion CAD) of economic activity and 238,000 jobs in the US and Canada.
That, my friends, is a big freaking deal.
There’s a great deal of trickle-down happening too for all of the direct and tangential businesses that are engaged with Great Lakes shipping trade.
Consider this:
Great Lakes-Seaway shipping is 14 percent more fuel efficient than rail and nearly 600 percent more fuel efficient than trucking.
A laker can move one ton of cargo 607 miles on one gallon of fuel. That is more more efficient, with fewer emissions and a cleaner environmental footprint, than an EV and all of its nasty carbon manufacturing inputs and batteries.
Raising a toast to another season of moving bulk cargo from here to there at the breathtaking pace of 15 miles per hour.
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