to muddy the discussion even more, I read that the shipping companies are building bigger ships. According the article, in the near future the majority of container ships will be too large to utilize many of the Pacific Coast ports. Plus, if they build the new China-backed canal in Nicarauga they will have even larger ships.

That might leave most of the Pacific Ports-at least the PNW-shipping coal, petroleum, grain, and logs. That make the PNW a Third World area, shipping our raw materials to somebody else?