Grasping for new solutions, state lawmakers are reigniting an old debate.

To help rescue the state from a worsening economic jam, lawmakers yesterday created a special commission to study the Quonset port.

Governor Carcieri has sought to quash the politically radioactive topic since his first campaign. Just last Friday, he reiterated his opposition to building a container port in North Kingstown, saying it would not help local businesses.

Despite years of debate, the governor told a group of small-business owners, no private investors are offering to build the facility.

“I’ve never been convinced,” Carcieri said, “that it would be an economic generator for us.”

But lawmakers have continued to press the issue, particularly as the state’s housing crisis snowballed into a deep recession.

Last year, after touring the Quonset Business Park, state Sen. Paul E. Moura filed legislation to create a joint legislative commission to study ways to expand shipping activity at Quonset.

The Senate passed the bill, introduced Jan. 22, on Feb. 27. But it was never voted on by the House, said Senate spokesman Greg Pare.

Larry Berman, the House spokesman, said the commission approved yesterday, proposed by legislative leaders including House Speaker William J. Murphy, will focus on Quonset and the privately managed Port of Providence.

The commission will have 12 members, 6 each from the House and Senate. Its findings are due Sept. 1.

“It’s time that the State of Rhode Island takes a comprehensive look at our underutilized assets to bolster job creation and grow our economy,” Murphy said in a statement.

State officials have been looking at these particular assets for more than a decade. In 1994, then-Gov. Lincoln C. Almond pushed plans to build a port for deep-water container ships at Quonset, a former Navy base.

The project would have required extensive dredging and the filling of hundreds of acres in Narragansett Bay. Its price tag was estimated at $3 billion 14 years ago. In the intervening years, the state agency that runs the port, the Quonset Development Corporation, has promised land near the proposed site to a builder of so-called mega-yachts.

In the past, Quonset officials have expressed frustration with the container-port debate, arguing that it overshadows the growth in operations at the existing port, including the expansion of auto-importer NORAD.

But with the recession starving the state of tax revenue and unemployment approaching 10 percent, lawmakers say the Ocean State should benefit more from its seaside real estate. “It’s imperative that we take advantage of the economic development opportunities that exist at both Quonset and Providence,” House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox said in a statement.

bgedan@projo.com