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I think I am more ont he side of the Port on this one. The majority of the jobs that will be created will be as a result of the port, not the at the port itself. Manufacturers (with IT Departments) want to make "stuff" where they don't need to pay large freight bills to have that "stuff" hauled to and from Newark. The company where I work competes with companies in China where the employees earn dollars a day and lower shipping cost would certainly help us be more competitive.
While I don't doubt the political ambitions, if you look at some of the other container ports on the east coast you'll see that industries that serve the global market have cropped up in close proximity to many of them.
Part of the port expansion was supposed to be a rail terminal that would handle a significant portion of the cargo coming into the port. If I remember correctly we passed a bond issue to improve the rail system to Quonset several years ago.
We already have Zebra Mussels and God only knows what else is coming into Providence on some of the rust buckets you see in the bay. I don't doubt the additional shipping will do some harm to the water quality, we're still a far cry from Norfolk and Baltimore. Did you know that AGRICULTURE is the single largest polluter of the waterways?
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