Jones Act Oil Rig Legislation Is Latest Controversy For Struggling Commercial Shipbuilders (From Forbes)

Over the last four decades, America has gone from being the biggest builder of commercial ships used in conducting international trade to producing no such ships at all. Only 1% of oceangoing container ships and tankers are now built in the U.S., and all of them are used in the protected domestic market. What protects that market is the Jones Act, a hundred-year-old law that reserves routes between domestic ports for U.S.-made ships manned by U.S. crews. Efforts are constantly being made to chip away at Jones Act protections, but Congress is currently moving to tighten restrictions. A case in point is the pending legislation to require waivers before operators of offshore oil platforms can turn to foreign sources for heavy-lift support of their rigs. I have written a piece for Forbes describing the stakes involved here.