The Department of Transportation (DOT) fiercely supports the Jones Act, Transportation Secretary Anthony R. Foxx told an audience at the Second Maritime Strategy Symposium May 6.
The Jones Act requires goods and passengers traveling by water between U.S. ports be transported in U.S.-made ships, owned by U.S. citizens and crewed by U.S. citizens. There currently are 90 Jones Act-eligible oceangoing, self-propelled, cargo-carrying vessels of 1,000 gross tons and above sailing in U.S. waters.
Discussion also centered around the need to have U.S-flag liquefied natural gas (LNG) ships. The U.S.-flag fleet, which consists of 179 ships, not only does not have any LNG ships, none are in production.
The last U.S-flag LNG vessel left the fleet in 2000 and since then foreign countries, especially South Korea and Japan, have dominated the market. The tankers cost around $200 million to build, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Maritime.