To listen to a State Ports Authority spokesman, a newly formed nonprofit group to advocate for privatization and the building of a shipping terminal in Jasper County may be a puff of wind. However, it is the newest gust advocating that South Carolina take advantage of a market economy well under way in the Southeast.

Beaufort County Councilman and businessman Dick Stewart has invested about $25,000 in a partnership -- SC Free Market Ports -- to increase public awareness of potential benefits of private participation in maritime cargo container ports.

Jasper County residents have been leading the charge in South Carolina for a decade, trying to gain approval to build a $500 million to $600 million port in partnership with SSA Marine. The State Ports Authority in August rejected the private enterprise plan that would create a port on 1,800 acres of land that Georgia owns in Jasper County. Both groups now are awaiting an S.C. Supreme Court decision about who has the authority.

But no matter who has the authority now, some say the world is moving beyond Beaufort and Jasper counties. Jasper County Administrator Andy Fulghum contends that what Stewart and the investment group are doing "will provide an environment where individuals supportive of moving the state forward will have a venue. They can join a common group with a common goal."

As Stewart wrote in a commentary for The Gazette last year: "The global, Web-based economy is advancing at lightning speed, but the South Carolina Ports Authority and the political establishment that controls it are limping along like an old Charles Towne carriage horse with its blinders on."

A new port would have a far greater impact in terms of job creation, investment and wealth creation than any economic development project ever in South Carolina.

This group's plan may be hot air to the Ports Authority officials, but it is a refreshing breeze in Jasper and Beaufort counties.