releases: http://nolan.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/nolan-announces-major-next-step-toward-new-poe-sized-lock-at-sault-ste
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
This data as json
| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| http://nolan.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/nolan-announces-major-next-step-toward-new-poe-sized-lock-at-sault-ste | Nolan Announces Major Next Step Toward New Poe-Sized Lock at Sault Ste. Marie | 2015-11-20 | 2015 | 2015-11 | Democrat | House | MN | Rick Nolan | N000127 | nolan.house.gov | legacy | U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan announced today that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved his urgent request to immediately begin an Economic Reevaluation Report for a new lock at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Construction of the lock deemed critical to preventing shipping delays and speeding commercial shipping from the Port of Duluth through the Great Lakes was authorized in 1986 and has been stranded for various budgetary reasons ever since. The study, which will begin in December and take approximately two years, is a major step toward eventual construction of a new lock matching in size the existing Poe Lock at Sault Ste. Marie. Nolan pressed OMB to reprogram funding to complete the report after visiting the Soo Locks in August, and learning how a failure in the aging system would cause lengthy delays and cost jobs in the Duluth region and throughout Great Lakes industries. This is tremendous news for our northern Minnesota mining, timber and manufacturing industries that send billions of dollars worth of their products from Duluth through the Soo Locks, the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway every year. The Soo Locks are the lynch pin of the Great Lakes Navigational System. A failure there would devastate Americas steel, auto and other manufacturing industries that rely on Iron Range taconite because there is no viable alternative to the 50-year old lock that accommodates 1,000 foot Laker ships that carry Iron Range taconite to steel mills in other states, Nolan said. Commercial shipping accounts for 13 percent of our nations GNP, and the Soo Locks admit some 4,000 ships annually the bulk of which originate from the Port of Duluth. Experts tell us that a 6-month closure of the Locks would result in 7 million good paying jobs being idled or lost causing a recession even worse than the one we experienced in 2008, Nolan added. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |