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matter, it won’t play in Pittsburgh, St. Louis, concerns, here and across the U.S. East Coast dancing in their heads. You can equate this well. Let’s Review: This week, we learned

Baton Rouge, Cleveland or a hundred places in the wake of that disaster. But, like Puerto week’s Jones Act waiver for Puerto Rico with that we should never let a good crisis go to in between. If you simply aren’t worried Rico, the vast majority of consumer goods the recent release of a few thousand barrels waste, primarily because if you repeat a lie about national security in the context of the and foodstuffs arrive to this region via for- of crude oil from the nation’s Strategic Pe- often enough, it then becomes the truth. At necessity of a robust domestic sealift capac- eign ? ag tonnage anyways. And, across the troleum Reserve (SPR). Both moves were the same time, stakeholders should be care- ity, then what should give you pause is the big pond, as soon as the magnitude of the cri- designed to address similar issues, neither ful what they wish for, because it just might prospect of a couple hundred thousand, casu- sis in Texas became apparent, European trad- provides palpable relief for anyone, but each come true. And when that happens, it most ally vetted foreign nationals threading their ers queued up a long line of tankers with re- makes for a nice sound bite on the evening certainly will not play in Peoria. Sadly, that’s way across the heartland on board as many as ? ned products to ? ll the gaps, no doubt with news. I guess that makes people feel better. the inconvenient truth. But, is anyone who 39,000 brown water workboats. That won’t visions of diesel and gasoline price ‘spikes’ Anti-Jones Act activists know this only too matters even listening? happen right away, of course; they’ll need time to train and acclimate before all of those jobs evaporate from the American landscape.

Nevertheless, that’s exactly what will hap- pen. All that said, here’s the real deal: elimi- nating one part of the Jones Act is very much like being a little bit pregnant. You either are, or you are not. And, there is either a Jones

Act, or there isn’t.

The Inconvenient Truth

Already receiving as much as 75% of what they consume via foreign registered tonnage and free to increase that market share at any time, island residents and their leadership al- ready know – but can’t say it right out loud – that the departure of the dedicated U.S. ? ag shipping model to and from the island would, long term, create as much of a ? nancial crisis as the considerable, insolvent mess they’ve already created for themselves. Like the cel- ebrations that followed the commonwealth’s ‘success’ in chasing the U.S. Navy from the island almost two decades ago, this ‘victory’ – should it happen – will also be shallow and short-lived.

Drilling down past all the arguments and carefully crafted campaigns, the real problem here has nothing to do with the Jones Act. Ar- guably, the best friends that the good people of Puerto Rico have ever had are the profes- sionals at U.S. ? ag ? eets that service the is- land. Collectively, they’ve invested hundreds © marekuliasz/Shutterstock of millions of dollars in the island, its econ- omy and waterfront logistics. The fact that anything at all is getting ashore in the wake of Maria, is ample testimony to the commit- ment of the U.S. ? rms that regularly ply these waters. You won’t read that in the New York

LEADING THE WAY IN

Times, or hear about it on Capitol Hill.

It is simpler than all of that, actually. The

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robust sealift capacity when he saw it. But, the chronic ‘perception’ problem still persists today.

www.eagle.org LEADING CLASS INTO THE FUTURE

Look at this way: A recent temporary

Jones Act waiver in the U.S. Gulf during the post-storm crisis in the Houston area made a lot of sense. There were legitimate energy www.marinelink.com 13

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