News outlets recently reported that the Obama Administration waived the Jones Act no less than 46 times following its decision to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in late June.
The Jones Act, a section of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, requires that only American-built, owned, and crewed vessels can operate when shipping cargo between two U.S. ports.
In order to get around the law, the Administration declared that the cutoff of oil supplies as a result of the conflict in Libya created a national emergency, allowing for waivers of the law to be issued.
The news reports stated that oil companies seeking to move tens of millions of barrels of domestic crude oil from the Strategic Reserve storage sites in the Gulf Region to refineries on the East Coast sought and received at least 46 waivers allowing them to hire foreign-owned tankers, staffed by foreign crew, to transport the oil.
American maritime workers are wondering: How could the Administration give foreign shippers and foreign crews advantage over U.S. shippers and U.S. crews traveling on U.S. waters to carry oil to U.S. facilities? I presume the reason is to save the oil corporations money on their shipping costs. These are the same corporations which have wreaked environmental catastrophe and reported record profits at the same time that high gas prices have further dragged down the struggling economy.
The Obama Administration has claimed that the reason for the large numbers of waivers of U.S. law is that U.S.-owned fleets only had small barges available to transport the oil, which would have slowed the process of getting the oil to market to lower the price of gasoline.
However, this claim has been disputed by representatives of domestic ship and barge operators. They point out that the oil shipments could easily have been broken into smaller amounts and that there were plenty of domestic ships and American crew capable of transporting the oil. U.S. maritime industry representatives have also pointed out that 10 million of the 30 million barrels of oil have not yet been transported, despite the large number of waivers issued.
In March, I sent a letter to the President, asking him to approve a release of crude oil from the Reserve to protect the fragile economic recovery. According to news reports, since the President's decision to release crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, oil has been shipped within U.S. borders on barges and tankers registered in countries like Panama and the Marshall Islands, employing foreign crews.
There are many unemployed American mariners who need work. Oil company executives are not standing in the unemployment line. The Administration's short-sightedness has meant that oil companies -- which hired foreign-flagged barges that do not employ American workers, do not pay U.S. taxes, and do not follow U.S. environmental rules -- benefited, while American mariners continue to try to weather this terrible economic storm.
Follow Rep. Dennis Kucinich on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RepKucinich
Oil Reserves Sidestep US Vessels
Obama Could Create Jobs And Support Defense
Ship owners: Foreign ships carry US oil
Obama has sent me beyond the tipping point. I'm outta here.
Are you running Dennis? Can you get Bernie to run with you?
Because the administration told them to do so - because lobbyists paid them to?
Because the 537 corrupt elected federal officials in Washington will do anything they can to help multi-national corporations?
You tell us why.
What we do know is that the Administration and U.S. Governance (Congress) is working just as hard as it can against the interests of the average American and for the interests of the very rich and multi-national corporations.
This is just another thing in the long list of what we are getting with President Obama. It took 30 years to tear up this country, and its going to take longer getting it back the way it was. President Clinton singed NAFTA. After that, church was out on the American workers in this country. Its now a race to the bottom of the economic scale for American labor. The Republicans wanted a debtor nation, and a two tier society. And when they get rid of all the social programs and safety nets. That is what we will have. Unfortunately the Dems are not putting anyone up that has the guts to get the job done to reverse this. Thats my 2 cents.
And that Wall Street Bailout? That was signed by GW Bush.
Also, are you aware that the US military is the largest socialist entity in the western hemisphere? You might want to understand what socialism is before you go using it like its a four letter word. Our own Constitution mandates socialism in some cases (military, roads).
Rather than get upset that the Administration waved this clearly protectionist law that gets in the way of the free flow of commerce, the voters should get upset that this regressive law, that is really a progressive tax on all those who use oil, even exists and demand that it be rescinded.
Another example of one industry getting protection to the detriment of ALL Americans.
Kai
Our government is no longer under the control of the many. It is under the control of corporate, financial, wall street interests. It is no longer a democracy; it is a plutocracy, oligarchy, aristocracy or what other name you wish to provide that means rule of the few for the few.
very, very simple. Obama doesn't give a hot damn about american jobs. His supposed concern
about US jobs, and US workers is simply rhetoric. But, this is hardly news, we've known Obama
for a corporate shill, a cold blooded stealth neo con for awhile now. Just look at the nafta like
trade deals he's trying to broker in Asia. Jobs are a campaign issue, talked about when the cameras are rolling, to bamboozle the public into thinking they care. Because at the heart of the matter, both
democrats and republicans reward outsourcing.
Gives a whole new meaning to "outsourcing" being it would have been on our own shores with government contracts.
This Admin has very little regard for our laws and the role of Congress. Executive Orders rule the day.
Last week they decided to change immigration law and impose what is essentially the Dream Act.
They decided not to enforce DOMA. defense of marriage act
they decided to shut down the Gulf mexico.
they scre wed the secured creditiors (bondholders) during the GM fiasco.
Second, your problem might be that you're a mariner that appears to think they are a drilling engineer. There has not been even a minor hiccup in shipping calls to Gulf ports - you can look at the shipping data from MORAD and confirm. Obama has not changed anything that would affect a "mariner". Yes, we had a brief shutdown (6 mo) of oil exploration while we figured out what the hell went wrong, but that doesn't employ mariners - it employs engineers and rig operators. You apparently don't know the difference. Perhaps a different line of work would suit you better.
Your blind loyalty to obama clouds your vision.
The industry, from Pensacola,FL to Aransas Pass, TX, has become a ghost town since this Admin began dictating.
The number of permits issued by the Department of Interior for offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico fell precipitously after the BP oil spill of April 2010 and has not recovered significantly.
The blue line represents deepwater permits.
The purple line represents shallow water permits.
http://www.realclearenergy.org/charticles/2011/07/30/offshore_drilling_permits_issued_since_bp_oil_spill.html