The Coos Bay-North Bend region got a surprise visitor recently when White House advisor Mitch Landrieu flew into town to get a first-hand look at the proposed intermodal shipping port in the Port of Coos Bay.

Sen. Ron Wyden and U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle took Landrieu on the tour in hopes of getting the White House to support the port project.

After flying over the port and hearing about the proposal from Port of Coos Bay CEO John Burns, Landrieu joined Wyden and Hoyle for a round table meeting with members of local labor unions, business owners, the two local Indian Tribes, local elected officials and others to get an idea of community support for the project.

Wyden said just getting Landrieu to see and hear about the project was an important step as the port proposal tries to receive a mega grant to cover much of the costs to modify the channel and make other repairs needed to get the project moving forward.

After the meeting, both Wyden and Hoyle said the shipping port was coming to Coos Bay.

“We are going to stay at the project until it gets over the finish line. Period,” Wyden said. “We spent the last couple of hours showing the White House’s top person on infrastructure why the Port of Coos Bay is a winner.”

Wyden said one thing he wanted to emphasize to the White House was the project will not only impact the Oregon Coast.

“The reality is this project helps this community, but if you’re a consumer in the Rockies, it’s going to help you, too, because it reduces shipping costs,” Wyden said.

Regardless of what happens when the mega grant winners are announced, Wyden said he was proud that Oregon’s elected officials got the White House to pay attention to the port project.

“Mitch Landrieu did not come here by osmosis,” Wyden said. “The congresswoman told me we had to get him on the phone. Within 20 minutes on the call, he said ‘I’m coming to Coos Bay.’ We know we’ve got a lot of work to do. This is a project that isn’t going to get done in the next 15 minutes, but it will get done.”

Hoyle emphasized that the port project will not only reduce shipping costs but will do it in a way that’s good for the environment.

“Coos Bay can be the solution to our supply chain congestion,” Hoyle said. “This can reduce our congestion to the West Coast by 10 percent. This is good for jobs, it’s good for businesses and it’s good for the environment.”

Hoyle said having a port using the most recent environmental standards and shipping containers via rail rather than trucks would be a major improvement for the environment.

“We can be the solution, and we will bring jobs back to the South Coast so the South Coast will have a thriving economy with middle-class jobs,” Hoyle said. “If people come to my office, I don’t care what they’re coming to talk about, I tell them about the Port of Coos Bay.”

Burns told the crowd the plan his agency is working on would change how shipping ports are built now and for the future.

“What we’re looking to do is build a port for the future,” Burns said. “We have an opportunity to build a port that will be environmentally at the top of the game. There’s a lot of stuff at stake with this project, and not just in Coos Bay.”

If completed, the project would provide up to 9,000 jobs running from Coos Bay, through Douglas County, into Florence and to Eugene, where the trains would pass off the shipping containers to travel across the nation.

Wyden said after the meeting that Landrieu was impressed with what he saw and heard during his visit.

“I think he walked away saying, ‘I just saw the textbook case of how you do economic development for the future,” Wyden said.

Wyden said one thing the White House is looking at is inflation, and he believes the port project could directly lower the nation’s inflation rate.

“We’ve heard about jobs, we’ve heard about the environment, but I believe what really puts this over the top is the impact on inflation,” Wyden said. “Our shipping costs are increasing too high. We showed the president’s point person that we have a winner.”

Hoyle said work is already started for one of the big concerns about the project – housing in an area that is already short on housing.

“North Pointe, which is building the port, has committed to building workforce housing, which we can use after they build it,” she said.

Hoyle also said while the mega grant would be a huge boost, it is not all or nothing.

“It is a very complicated process,” she said. “If not the mega grant, we have plan B and plan C.”