Look at the lakes on AIS, and the maritimes. They surprisingly have ships even sailing coastwise roro! Yes I know only one Irving (actually kent lines to be specific) ship is Canadian flagged and not necess, but they have several JJ Ugland shuttle tankers, all the desgagnes, more than you think. Not big and impressive, definately not. It’s an example that even here in North America the idea of requiring coastwise crews be local isn’t out of reality.
I need to read up more, but I am sure there are plenty of other countries that are the same.
[QUOTE=z-drive;134022]Look at the lakes on AIS, and the maritimes. They surprisingly have ships even sailing coastwise roro! Yes I know only one Irving (actually kent lines to be specific) ship is Canadian flagged and not necess, but they have several JJ Ugland shuttle tankers, all the desgagnes, more than you think. Not big and impressive, definately not. It’s an example that even here in North America the idea of requiring coastwise crews be local isn’t out of reality.
I need to read up more, but I am sure there are plenty of other countries that are the same.[/QUOTE]
The situation in Canada is a lot like it is here, but Canada has less than half the population of California. There is a lot of domestic tug and barge traffic, ships on the lakes, but not many deep draft coastal ships. Like the US, Canadian ships are relatively high cost so they don’t have many ships in foreign trade.
In coming years, the Canadian oil patch is going to be as big as the North Sea. There will be a lot of new boats and a shortage of Canadian mariners.
Just another lobbying effort against the Jones Act. The article does not even mention very high cost and delays of using the longshoremen. Shippers use trucks to avoid the longshoremen. Eliminating the Jones Act would not take any traffic of the roads.
It’s the same anti Jones Act propaganda that doesn’t correctly calculate costs. What’s stopping the US Marine Highway from taking off is inadequate infrastructure, outdated tariffs, and longshoremen costs. The trucking lobby is also very strong and while the feds put thundered of millions into roads and other infrastructure that benefits trucking they ignore maritime. Also, there are port tariffs charged on cargo via ship but no similar tariffs on trucking. Exempt Jones Act cargo from tariffs and have them self unload bypassing the longshoremen and it would be very economical, even with the Jones Act fully in place.
Cold spell in NE urgently requires additional gas for heating .
Excess of gas on the Gulf Cost, but how to get it there?
Only one way, by ship.
But there are no US flag ships able to carry LNG in any quantity.
OK, buy some Russian gas that has just been delivered to the UK and transport that across the Atlantic.
Don’t let the fact that you have tried to stop the Russians from developing the gas plant from which the gas originated stop you. Cold can teach naked woman to spin and nitt.
Luckily international trade is still free and able to react fast.
For the last 40 years, Environmentalists have opposed, obstructed, and delayed permits to build LNG pipelines to the Northeast.
The Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania (it extends from Ontario to Kentucky) contains enough gas supply to run the US for decades. It is presently capable of producing enough gas to meet the needs of the Northeast.
The problem is a lack of pipeline capacity, not the Jones Act. We need to allow construction of more pipelines.
A Jones Act waiver for a few weeks would be appropriate to solve this short term spike in gas needs.
It will be interesting to see how the cards fall in Indonesia. They don’t have enough tonnage that is acceptable by the Tokyo MoU and as the article says all it will do is stifle industries and increase costs.
What is the problem? Does Indonesian independence threaten them that much? Let the whiners buy and operate Indonesian flagged ships.
I wish the American congress had the balls to do the same thing for American workers and industry. Why should any nation turn over the profits from its resources to a foreign parasite?