An obscure 1920
law is costing Americans billions of dollars a year in higher fuel costs. The Jones Act
requires that cargo shipped from one US port to another be carried on a
US-registered vessel, built, owned and crewed by Americans. This protectionist
law was designed to support a shipbuilding industry that no longer exists—but
inertia and labor-union muscle keep it on the books.
The law mainly
makes the news in time of crisis........But every day the
law adds to energy bills because it stops foreign-flagged tankers and barges
from shipping among US ports. They can’t help move crude from Gulf Coast ports
to East Coast refineries, or supply Florida with oil from Louisiana and Texas
ports or ship oil between West Coast and Alaskan ports. Without the Jones Act, in short, we’d have
significantly greater domestic oil production……To Read More…..
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