Jones Act

GAO is now indicating that they will issue their long awaiting report on the economic impact of the Jones Act on Puerto Rico, on Thursday, March 14, 2013....

It’s devastating to the nation’s economy, environment, and defense capability....

Sen. Malama Solomon February 28 introduced two Senate Resolutions (SR20 and SCR42) with identical wording requesting Hawaii be exempted from the Jones Act.  Here is the full text....

Jim Cramer Mad Money CNBC addresses the Jones Act and its negative impact on liquid fuel prices and supply....

An obsolete U.S. law known as the Jones Act makes people in Puerto Rico poorer, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York....

While the United States is on the verge of an energy revolution, an obsolete law threatens to stall oil production and already inflates the price of gasoline....

...Hawaii also is looking to boost its use of natural gas, and it will need a Jones Act exemption as well. It's time to strike on this issue now!

The proposed Jamaica logistics hub would act as a transshipment point for the Caribbean, Latin America and the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts....

“Although the US Jones’ Act fleet only accounts for 10% of the total capacity of containerships used in cabotage trades, its impact is disproportionately higher due to the requirement for vessels to be US-built, unlike most other countries...."

...the New York Fed identified the Jones Act as a major impediment to the Island’s prosperity....

The type of ship needed to transport LNG is a highly-specialized kind of tanker ship known as an LNG Carrier, none of which have been built in the U.S. since the mid-1970’s....

The purpose of the NPC is solely to advise, inform and make recommendations to the Secretary of Energy with respect to any matters relating to oil and natural gas....

In 2003, Hawaii congressman Ed Case introduced legislation to free his state from the Jones Act....

...rising cost of petroleum fuels coupled with strict new international air pollution regulations for ships are causing ship owners and operators to look seriously at the use of LNG ....

...commentary not only addresses the primary U.S. cabotage statute – i.e., the Jones Act – but also the pernicious effects of cabotage laws in other countries....

By some estimates, Jones Act makes goods in Hawaii 33% more expensive than they could be....

 “Any action that weakens the protectionism of the Jones Act will ultimately be to the long-term benefit US shipping.”

...influential British maritime journal Lloyd’s List published three articles today regarding the long awaited US. Government Accountability Office release of a report on their study of the impact of the Jones Act on Puerto Rico....

Bloomberg calls for major Jones Act reform in two parts: elimination of the U.S. build requirement for ships engaged in domestic coastwise trades; and, a more controversial proposal to allow foreign ship owners to compete....

Matson will continue to provide service to Reef's historical core trade lanes from Auckland, New Zealand and Fiji to the island nations of Nauru, the Solomon Islands, Tahiti, Samoa, Cook Islands, Niue, Tonga, Wallis and Futuna, Vanuatu, Tarawa and Majuro ....

The new barge is being specially designed and built to service the Hawaii market and will be larger, more efficient than its predecessor....

...the U.S. build section of the Act should be modified in certain trades of domestic shipping in order to support the U.S. Merchant Marine....

 “the remote states and territories.”

A leading Jones Act shipowner said last week they will build two containerships in the United States that were designed by a foreign shipbuilder and will be fitted with foreign manufactured components....

...Matson is planning to acquire, within the next five years, two new mainline ships for the extravagant price of U.S. $400 million.... 

Perhaps the most important upcoming development in respect of Jones Act reform will occur early in the first quarter of 2013. That is when the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) is expected to release a Jones Act study requested by the resident commissioner of Puerto Rico, Representative Pedro Pierliusi (D).

...the “prices for new ships have fallen to an eight-year low” and may be pushed down another 15 percent....

The Jones Act Waiver was requested by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ....

To go beyond supplying their current gas customer base in Hawaii, it will be necessary for Hawaii Gas and the other players to look at a very much larger scale program....

The long predicted fight over the foreign flag carriage of crude oil from the U.S. Government’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) on the U.S. Gulf Coast to refineries on the U.S. East Coast seems set to begin in earnest ....

"...it’s come to the point where we are wondering whether it’s worth continuing the business...."

The Star-Advertiser asked all 24 candidates running for three federal offices 6 questions including, “Should Hawaii be exempt from the Jones Act, the federal law that protects the domestic shipping industry from foreign competition?” 

...additional costs to be incurred by carriers switching to low sulfur ship fuels as required by an international convention, which the United States Senate has not ratified but is being imposed anyway by President Barack Obama’s administration beginning on August 1, 2012....

“Dems and Mr. Jones, they got a thing going on. They both know it’s wrong. But it’s much too strong to let it cool down now.”

...trapped in a protected and proscribed market, surrounded by customers who don't like paying its exorbitant rates and unable to afford modern ships....

The Navy released its preliminary findings yesterday in the case of the fire aboard the Los Angeles Class fast attack nuclear submarine USS Miami (SSN 755) that may result in the vessel being assessed as a total constructive loss....

Rep. Hirono states that the Jones Act has created 10,000 maritime jobs in Hawaii, and the Hawaii maritime industry generates an annual turnover of more than $4.7 billion and provides wages of $1.1 billion. These are extravagant numbers ... 

The Governor of Guam, the Honorable Eddie Baza Calvo’s Council of Economic Advisors has recently released the outline of their new economic plan, and Jones Act reform is a key element of that plan....

...in a direct rebuff to U.S. shipyards, it will refit three of its ageing containerships in Asia hypocritically skirting the so-called “second proviso” of the Jones Act....

First-class travel. Six-figure salaries for half the 132 officers and staffers. Plenty of plum jobs for family members. Life is good at the top of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers.

Horizon wishes to assure the Jones Act industry of its fidelity and that it will not succumb to the siren call of Jones Act reform even if that means it will never have a chance to rationally renew its fleet of dreadful old clunkers....

In response to my article, a reader asks: “We get all the natural gas we need now. How does it get here? The article makes it sound impossible, but it’s here.”

Professor Stiglitz explained that the first time the Jones Act came to his attention is when he worked on the President’s Council of Economic Advisors and it was identified as a major impediment to the national U.S. economy....

There are no Jones Act ships available to transport the LNG from the contiguous United States or Alaska to Hawaii. No deep draft LNG carrier has been built in a U.S. shipyard for at least 30 years....

More than a thousand ships and barges will reach the end of their useful lives in the next few years. More may be forced out of service as environmental standards tighten....

... labor rates are not the main reason why U.S. shipyards are uncompetitive ....

Last year, instead of enacting a law stating that the Supreme Court was wrong, the Legislature adopted special legislation exempting the Superferry pending completion of an environmental impact statement. The Supreme Court’s recent decision correctly struck down that exemption as violating the Hawaii constitutional prohibition against legislative special treatment for special interests.

The governor and Legislature were then handed a second opportunity to make the law pono by saying what everyone believed. The Legislature could enact simple language, such as the following which I recommended to the legislative leadership in March 2009, making clear that our environmental laws do not extend to "secondary" impacts:

"Significant effect" does not include or require consideration of “secondary impacts” on the environment that may result from government action. This latter provision is retroactive to enactment of this chapter.

By doing so, the law would state what everyone always believed it meant and the Superferry would have been allowed to continue providing essential transportation to Hawaii's citizens and competition to interisland airlines.