Jones Act Slowing Oil Spill cleanup?

Fox News.com ^ | June 10, 2010 | Brian Wilson

[oldmomster]

Jones Act Slowing Oil Spill Cleanup? June 10, 2010 - 5:41 PM | by: Brian Wilson Foreign companies possessing some of the world’s most advanced oil skimming ships say they are being kept out of efforts to clean up the oil spill in the Gulf because of a 1920’s law known as the Jones Act -- a protectionist law that requires vessels working in US waters be built in the US and be crewed by US workers. Joseph Carafano of the Heritage Foundation has been studying the matter and wonders, “Are we accepting all the international assistance in the maritime domain that we can, and is the Jones Act an impediment to that?”

[oldmomster]

Obama refused help from the Dutch 3 days after explosion (Harvard surely teaches oil spill cleanup)....now that oil has reached land, will Pres. Harvard give the cleanup work to Acorn? community activists? his new domestic army?

[surroundedbyblue]

ACORN & some union workers no doubt. This is ridiculous.

[Diogenesis]

Obama pride ... he made certain America died.

“….. thirteen entities had offered the U.S. oil spill
assistance within about two weeks of the Horizon rig explosion. They were the
governments of Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands,
Norway, Romania, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the
United Nations.
The U.S. response - Thank you, but no thank you, we've got it.
‘..While there is no need right now that the U.S. cannot meet, the U.S. Coast Guard is
assessing these offers of assistance to see if there will be something which we will need
in the near future.’”

Actually - it was at least 17 countries ignored by Pres_ _ent Obama.

[musicman]

"Jones Act Slowing Oil Spill cleanup?"

[DUMBGRUNT]

Note that the Whitehouse only reacts long after the fact. Slowly.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The Jones Act has a large exception.
Canadian railroad company CN owns and operates the former US Steel Great Lakes Fleet ore carriers.

[TornadoAlley3]

Katrina hits US oil industry, Jones Act temporarily waived:

Hurricane Katrina shut at least eight oil refineries, reducing US fuel production by more than 10 percent and leading to scattered shortages. The refineries are expected to come back online in between a week and three to four weeks, which will undoubtedly cause more shortages. The upcoming long Labor Day weekend has also created more demand for gas. Both state leaders and President Bush have asked consumers to hold off buying gas unless they need it.

The US Coast Guard reports that five oil rigs from the West Delta Platform are missing, one submersible rig is grounded, two mobile offshore drilling units are adrift, two semi- submersibles are listing, and the Mars platform owned by Royal Dutch Shell Plc is “severely damaged.” Oil and gas are also severely disrupted by the shutdown of a key oil import terminal off the coast of Louisiana. The Bush administration is releasing oil from the petroleum reserves to help refiners cope with shortages caused by Katrina. Bush has also temporarily waived the Jones Act, which will allow foreign tankers to deliver oil to US ports to ease disruptions in oil supplies.

[sirchtruth]

I just posted this on another thread:

Add Carol Browner to this list of incompetent dipshinolas! I just saw her on FOX being asked about why she hasn't lifted the JONES ACT so others could help with the oil spill. She said she wasn't asked by the Admiral of the Coastguard to do so, and then they show a clip of him basically saying this is what he would like to do, but the administration hasn't asked him to do anything about it! These leftist are destroying our way of life with their idiocy and we are just sitting back letting it happen...If this doesn't change in Nov we are screwed!!

[Doogle]

...the MSM will protect Spock above all else. Total incompetence from the top down.....people "waiting" for "permission" to do what they were ask to do......from the beginning, APRIL 20 WHEN OBAMA WAS ON TOP OF IT

[Dr. Scarpetta]

Is NBC news informing the public about the Jones Act?

[Dr. Scarpetta]

thirteen entities had offered the U.S. oil spill assistance within about two weeks of the Horizon rig explosion. They were the governments of Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations. The U.S. response - Thank you, but no thank you, we've got it.

Obama is a disgrace.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

Katrina hits US oil industry, Jones Act temporarily waived:

I guess Bush knew about the Jones Act, and Obama doesn't.... He's too busy partying and golfing.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

I just saw her on FOX being asked about why she hasn't lifted the JONES ACT so others could help with the oil spill. She said she wasn't asked by the Admiral of the Coastguard to do so, and then they show a clip of him basically saying this is what he would like to do, but the administration hasn't asked him to do anything about it!

A fifth-grader would know what to do here with the Jones Act. Democrats can't figure it out, though while the coast is being destroyed.

[Alberta's Child]

Very interesting. The Jones Act of 1920 is a U.S. maritime law that may not apply to Great Lakes shipping in any case (these would likely be governed by agreements between the U.S. and Canada).

And Canadian National Railway is a publicly-traded company, so it probably wouldn't qualify as a "foreign" company even if it is headquartered in Canada. Most of the shareholders are American, and the railroad's U.S. operations are subject to regulatory oversight by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.

The bigger point regarding the Jones Act and the BP oil disaster is that I'm not sure the Jones Act applies at all. The Jones Act covers ships moving cargo or passengers between U.S. ports . . . I've never understood it to mean that it covers ALL ships working in U.S. waters.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The Jones Act is the only reason there is an American fleet on the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Fleet moves iron ore from Two Harbors and Duluth, Minnesota to Gary, Indiana, then picks up stone at Rogers City, Michigan for offloading at Duluth, which is railed to the iron ore processing plants to make flux pellets (iron ore with limestone in the feedstock.)
Until the CN buyout of Great Lakes Fleet, the Lakes shipping association jealously guarded any intrusion into US-port-to-US-port cargo movement. They screamed their heads off when a Japanese company tried to buy an inland grain barging company on the Mississippi and actually stopped this purchase.
CN is a pure Canadian company which, according to the Jones Act, cannot move cargo from and to American ports. They single handedly destroyed the Jones Act by buying an American fleet and no one in Minnesota or DC made a whimper.

[bert]

We now know conclusively that the means for cleaning up the spill was known since day 1 but were not allowed to be used because the vessels and equipment are not American Union made.

Union’s fault. Union members should be sued and the funds extracted from their personal assets.

Your union member neighbor is responsible

[griswold3]

Thanks for the history lesson. How soon they forget!

[griswold3]

Intentional neglect by the Obama Administration?

[longtermmemmory]

no it is Obama’s UNION BLINDNESS which is stopping the help.

Obama needs the crisis not the solution.

He does not even understand that dividents go to pension holders no corporate pockets.

Obama is priority is union first, even at the expense of main street usa.

[oldmomster]

Since I never watch NBC news, I couldn’t say, but its not like I havent sent the link to a bunch of MSNBC peeps!