Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont recently called for Congress to “rethink” the Jones Act. The governor is right, as this segment of What’s Ahead demonstrates.
Passed in 1920, the legislation was supposed to revive and protect the U.S. shipping industry. Perversely, it has done the opposite. The cost of building a commercial vessel in the U.S., for instance, is four to five times what it is in Japan and South Korea. The U.S. Merchant Marine is a shadow of what it once was.
The Jones Act has unnecessarily raised energy costs, particularly hurting Connecticut and other New England states. It has similarly and seriously boosted the cost of living in Hawaii and Alaska and the territories of Puerto Rico and Guam.
The quicker the Jones Act is deep-sixed, the better.
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