Greetings!:
Miami-Dade County is scrambling to save the only practical fuel facility serving PortMiami’s cruise and cargo ships.
And standing squarely in the middle of this failure was County Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins.
The County may now have to condemn the Fisher Island property, fight years of litigation and pay hundreds of millions of dollars to preserve infrastructure that should never have been allowed to sail away.
It’s either that or lose $61.4 billion in economic activity and support for more than 63,000 good paying jobs.
Its broader economic reach touches 340,000 local jobs.
We’re talking cruise employees. Longshoremen. Crane operators. Stevedores. Truck drivers. Warehouse workers. Caterers. Hotel employees. Airport workers. Restaurants. Tour companies. Freight forwarders.
Thousands of businesses depend upon PortMiami, whether they realize it or not.
Maybe one you work for.
For two years, Cohen Higgins chaired the County Commission’s PortMiami
Resiliency and Sustainability Committee. The committee was responsible for overseeing PortMiami’s cruise business, cargo operations and infrastructure. She held that position throughout 2023 and 2024.
Cohen Higgins was happy to appear at PortMiami ceremonies, issue press releases and take credit for new terminals, shore-power projects, and cruise-line partnerships.
The smiles and selfies were never-ending.
But while she held the committee gavel, nobody secured the one facility without which those cruise ships and cargo fleets can’t operate.
The privately owned fuel terminal on Fisher Island supplies fuel to vessels at PortMiami. There is no comparable facility at the port itself. When the property was offered for sale in 2025, a developer bought it for approximately $180 million, intending to remove the fuel tanks and replace them with luxury condo towers.
Cruise-industry executives warned commissioners that the facility was essential to PortMiami. Commissioner Oliver Gilbert proposed authorizing immediate eminent-domain action.
Cohen Higgins opposed it.
She said she wanted more information, wanted to hear from the property owner, and preferred to explore other possibilities.
Think about that.
The former chairwoman of the committee responsible for PortMiami apparently needed more information about the possible loss of PortMiami’s indispensable fuel supply only days before the property changed hands.
That is not leadership.
That is what happens when political officials spend more time cutting ribbons and smiling for the camera than thinking and asking hard questions.
The sale closed and the County is now pursuing costly eminent-domain proceedings.
Cohen Higgins now chairs the County’s Aviation and Seaport Committee. Once again, she holds the gavel over PortMiami.
But the question South Dade voters should ask is simple:
Where was Danielle Cohen Higgins when PortMiami’s fuel supply was being sold out from under the taxpayers?
She cannot blame this on staff. She cannot pretend she was merely one commissioner among 13.
She chaired the committee assigned to oversee the Port during the years when Miami-Dade should have identified the danger and protected the facility.
The fuel depot went up for sale.
The warning lights were flashing.
And Danielle Cohen Higgins was standing on the bridge.
Now the taxpayers are left trying to refloat the ship she sank.
South Dade deserves more than ceremonial leadership, staged photographs, and carefully polished slogans.
We deserve a Commissioner who recognizes an approaching disaster before the ship slips under the waves.
Member discussion