Ports-to-Plains Alliance



The Ports-to-Plains Alliance, based in Lubbock, Texas, United States, is a non-profit bipartisan advocacy group led by mayors, councillors, and other local elected leaders, economic development officials, business, and other opinion leaders from nine states (Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, and Wyoming) and one Canadian province (Alberta) which contains a 2,300-plus mile economic development corridor stretching from Texas to Alberta.

The alliance was formalized in 2009 through an agreement between groups representing three congressionally-designated High Priority Corridors on the U.S. National Highway System (NHS): the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor Coalition, Heartland Expressway, and the Theodore Roosevelt Expressway Association. Today, as the Ports-to-Plains Alliance, the coalition works to assure continued prosperity in communities throughout North America’s energy and agricultural heartland.

Aims
The alliance promotes trade, investment, infrastructure development, and intermodal connectivity in the Ports-to-Plains region. Originally, each individual group lobbied the U.S. Congress, the White House, and state governments for highway improvement dollars, with largely-local goals in mind.

Today, the Ports-to-Plains Alliance is a forum for collaboration and a partnership for maximizing the potential of the region and its people. The alliance raises funds to sustain and improve the Ports-to-Plains regional intermodal transportation network.

Core services
Through its volunteer Board, full-time professional staff headquartered in Lubbock, Texas, and advocacy professionals in all nine states, Canada, Mexico, and Washington, D.C., the alliance provides its member communities, partners, and businesses the following core services:
 * Advocacy: The alliance monitors legislative developments in all nine states likely to impact the region’s energy and agriculture sectors and the infrastructure they require to flourish. Member communities rely on Alliance leaders and staff to help them identify, pursue, and capture hard dollars for local highway projects.
 * Economic Development: The alliance provides communities a forum for marketing local business, investment, and tourism to a national and international business audience.
 * Industry Partnerships: Through industry work groups, the alliance provides the energy, agriculture, transportation, trucking, and other industries a means of providing guidance on policy matters, educating the public, and promoting their brands.