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fiddlersgreen2021 t1_iv2cqd3 wrote

Reply to comment by Real-Pierre-Delecto2 in New England may not have enough natural gas to last the winter by mycophdstudent

And secondly, Congress could fix this shit tomorrow by subsidizing the US merchant fleet like other major powers do with theirs. If they brought the cost online with building an LNG ship in Asia we could build several for Jones act work.

At the end of the day most developed countries have cabotage laws as a manner of national defense. If another country can control your coast wise trade via owning most of the shipping than you lack a key piece of national sovereignty.

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Real-Pierre-Delecto2 t1_iv2eork wrote

True thanks for the extra info hadn't really thought of that option. It would take some time though for construction of the ships. But ya there are lots of things than can be done we just need the will to do so. Side note had no clue what cabotage laws were:) Sounds like sabotaging a cabbage grow op.

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fiddlersgreen2021 t1_iv2ghou wrote

In the short term I’d be ok with a Jones act waiver if it came with legislation for funding to build some of our own Jones act ships. We built them once, unfortunately a lot of our ship building capacity is gone, or focuses almost exclusively on pork belly navy ship building.

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Real-Pierre-Delecto2 t1_iv2kh2q wrote

"came with legislation for funding to build some of our own Jones act ships."

Great solution with a long term goal but wasn't there bitching about the last waiver for PR that was just for a short time anyways? Everyone wants a cut it seems. Could be a major uphill battle in Congress. There was a few of em IIRC D's and R's bipartisan BS plenty of lobbying and greasing of palms. Govt has become useless this shouldn't be that hard. That's interesting though about the shipbuilding capacity decline something I have never thought of for sure. That whole industry is a bit foreign to me.

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fiddlersgreen2021 t1_iv2m4qb wrote

There is bitching whenever jones act waivers are signed for Puerto Rico because there isn’t a problem with shipping capacity on American bottoms. Most of Puerto Rico’s problems are in Puerto Rico. After the two big storms a couple years back Crowley had ships and barges stacked up with no way to get goods inland as the roads were gone.

Hawaii is another good example. There is nothing stopping hawaii from getting fuel on foreign ships, as long is it comes from foreign sources. This also happens on a regular basis. There is nothing stopping them from getting consumer goods via container on foreign flagged ships, aside from the fact that the harbors are too small, and they are way off the most efficient track for Asia to west coast traffic.

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Loudergood t1_iv5qnqe wrote

If I owned an LNG freighter it'd be on its way to Europe right now.

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