Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

How A 96-Year-Old Law Has Jeopardized America's Ports
Townhall.com ^ | December 2, 2014 | Jared Meyer

Posted on 12/02/2014 11:56:41 AM PST by Kaslin

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-58 next last
To: Repeal The 17th

Yup.

What’s wrong with American workers?

Any one want to give them pink slips, raise your hands.


21 posted on 12/02/2014 12:18:26 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: navyblue

In one load, no.

But in the time it takes a ship to cross the ocean, many flights could be made.


22 posted on 12/02/2014 12:18:44 PM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: goldstategop

I think all information, spoken or data, carried over the airwaves between people in the United States should be transmitted and received over equipment made exclusively in the USA.


23 posted on 12/02/2014 12:20:50 PM PST by frithguild (The warmth and goodness of Gaia is a nuclear reactor in the Earth's core that burns Thorium)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: goldstategop

Tell the owners of Canadian National RR about the Jones Act.
They bought US Steel’s iron ore carriers that haul from US port to US port,,,


24 posted on 12/02/2014 12:21:37 PM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (Rip it out by the roots.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: thackney; goldstategop; Don W
If you have google earth or even google maps take a look at Ulsan, Korea. Put on the street view and wander up and down either side of the bay to see the enormous shipyards operated by nations from all over the world. Notice the ships and oil rigs being built by the Dutch, Germans, Koreans and even American (companies) as fast as they can churn them out.
25 posted on 12/02/2014 12:22:01 PM PST by Baynative (Did you ever notice that atheists don't dare sue Muslims?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin; All

Remember, regardless of Congress’s impressive track record for making constitutionally complaint laws (sarc), all federal laws need to be checked against Congress’s constitutional Article I, Section 8-limited powers.

Regarding U.S. ports for example, are these federal ports purchased under the Constitution’s Clause 17 of Section 8 of Article I?

Also, if U.S. ships (and what is a U.S. ship defined as?) transport goods between two ports in the same state, I don’t see how the Constitution’s Commerce Clause (1.8.3) would apply.

On the other hand, if the ports are in different states then all bets are off.

Otherwise, what am I overlooking?


26 posted on 12/02/2014 12:24:46 PM PST by Amendment10
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: goldstategop

I think the important thing to note is that this law
does not apply to shipping to/from China and San Francisco, but it
does apply to shipping to/from San Francisco and Portland.


27 posted on 12/02/2014 12:24:51 PM PST by Repeal The 17th (We have met the enemy and he is us.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Baynative

I’ve worked projects where the base of the oil platform was built there then sent to Texas to be fitted up with the complex process equipment for installation in Gulf of Mexico.


28 posted on 12/02/2014 12:29:42 PM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Apples and oranges. The slowdown in the ports are due to the longshoremen and then obsolence of the port facilities. The Jones Act doesn’t have anything to do with either of those.


29 posted on 12/02/2014 12:31:12 PM PST by DoodleDawg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: goldstategop

The next step after that would be for us to ratify LOST (UN treaty)... I don’t want any non-Americans commanding ships that float our coastal/inland waterways. I have already had enough of China and others buying all the property they can get their hands on.


30 posted on 12/02/2014 12:32:43 PM PST by Resolute Conservative
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The NLRA is the problem, not the Jones Act. Thank FDR for that.


31 posted on 12/02/2014 12:33:34 PM PST by shove_it (long ago Orwell and Rand warned us of Obama's America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Resolute Conservative
I don’t want any non-Americans commanding ships that float our coastal/inland waterways.

Do you believe that vessels from other nations do not enter and use our coastal/inland waterways.

32 posted on 12/02/2014 12:34:21 PM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: thackney

They do, but I don’t want it to be a free for all. We already do a poor job of monitoring them all.


33 posted on 12/02/2014 12:40:36 PM PST by Resolute Conservative
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I read the Wiki article. Your piece leaves out tons of needed information like:

The American shipbuilding industry is booming right now. Wonder why that was left out?

The GAO says that any potential damages are unmeasurable and can’t be proven.

The Jones Act was updated as recently as 2006.

Ships can apply for and get waivers.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920


34 posted on 12/02/2014 12:41:07 PM PST by mountainbunny (Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens ~ J.R.R. Tolkien)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: goldstategop

“If you like your job going to a Third World country, by all means vote to abolish the American merchant marine.”

So tell us, which union do you belong to? There simply isn’t anything about the Longshoremen that shouldn’t be abolished. As I child, I remember Harry Bridges (ILWU President, Non-US Citizen, and Communist) putting his members on the streets of San Francisco where they actually murdered a few people to get their way.


35 posted on 12/02/2014 12:41:25 PM PST by vette6387
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
To highlight the absurdity of this law, consider goods being shipped from Japan to the Hawaii. Foreign ships must pass Hawaii on their way to San Francisco, so an American ship can take that cargo and bring it back to Hawaii.

That's simply not true. Foreign ships may, in fact, take cargo directly to Hawaii. Most large container ships do not do that, though, and instead bring it to the West Coast, where it is then shipped back to Hawaii by U.S. shippers. But that's not required by the Jones Act - it is simply because it makes more economic sense for the foreign shipper to unload all of its cargo in a West Coast port, rather than stopping in Hawaii on the way to drop off a small portion of its cargo.

36 posted on 12/02/2014 12:42:57 PM PST by Conscience of a Conservative
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Why would Asian ships bringing goods to Hawaii have to drop it in San Francisco? Asia to Hawaii isn’t between two U.S. ports. And prohibiting foreign vessels from helping us out with the gulf coast oil spill was just bonehead stupid, Obama sucking up to the Commies, er, unions. Where were his executive orders when all that was happening?


37 posted on 12/02/2014 12:43:54 PM PST by beelzepug (You can't fix a broken washing machine by washing more expensive clothes in it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mountainbunny

The Jones Act can only be waived if is determined that such a waiver is “necessary in the interest of national defense” – which is a high bar and rarely invoked.

http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/Editorial-Lazy-Jones-Act-Thinking-2014-02-21


38 posted on 12/02/2014 12:46:06 PM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Want energy independence? Waive the Jones Act
http://www.aei.org/publication/want-energy-independence-waive-the-jones-act/

Because there isn’t enough pipeline or rail capacity to handle the enormous quantities of unconventional oil being produced in North America — much of it oil-sands crude from Alberta and “tight oil” from the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota – the oil must be transported by a fleet of tankers and barges to mid-Atlantic refineries that can process it. But there aren’t enough vessels to ship the oil due to the Jones Act – which requires that all cargoes transported between U.S. ports be carried on U.S.-owned ships, built and registered in the U.S., and manned by U.S. crews.

Thanks to this protectionist statute, there is now a glut of sweet crude at Gulf ports, which has caused a backup that could start to slow oil production in North Dakota and at the Eagle Ford shale in south Texas.


39 posted on 12/02/2014 12:48:05 PM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I believe this act is the reason cruise ships have to stop in Canada on their way to Anchorage from Seattle. How it helps American business is anyone’s guess.


40 posted on 12/02/2014 12:58:06 PM PST by sportutegrl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-58 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson