A federal law passed in 1920 called the Jones act and is now making headlines because of the oil spill within the Gulf of Mexico 2010. The Jones Act was passed 90 years ago to give U.S. shipping companies an advantage over the rest of the world in U.S. waters. Today the Jones Act is preventing the rest of the world from helping the U.S. clean up the BP oil spill with state of the art technology. Now it is unlikely the Obama administration doesn't know the effect the Jones act if having on the disaster. Rather than talking about passing a law to help the situation, perhaps a simple executive order suspending the Jones Act would be a lot more productive.
Article Source: Jones Act of 1920 hinders best response to gulf oil spill in 2010
Jones Act slows oil spill cleanup
The Jones Act prevented foreign companies from offering the U.S. assistance in the oil spill cleanup soon after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killed 11 individuals, sank, blew out the well and started an undersea gusher that has dumped up to 30,000 barrels of oil a day for the past 53 days. It was reported by the Heritage Foundation that within days of the oil spill, a number of European nations offered the Obama administration ships to assist within the clean-up of the Gulf. A Belgian newspaper, De Standaard, explained that European firms working with the U.S. could complete the task in three months, instead of an estimated nine months if done by the U.S. alone. De Standaard reports that no U.S. companies have the ships to accomplish this task is because those ships would cost twice as much to build in the U.S.
Barred ships for oil spill cleanup
The Jones Act is preventing the most advanced oil cleanup ships from participating in the oil spill cleanup. According to Fox News, politics are taking precedent over ensuring the best possible oil spill cleanup effort. Joseph Carafano of the Heritage Foundation suggested to Fox News that the most proven foreign oil cleanup ships remain on the sidelines because of the Obama administration's close relationship with all of of the labor unions. Unions believe that the Jones Act protects American jobs, and those unions use their political clout to pressure all of the lawmakers who would waive the law for this one time.
Oil spill BP liability
Waiving the Jones Act may do a lot more to blunt the damage of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico than other legal moves being considered. The Wall Street Journal reports that President Obama, talking about BP oil spill liability on Thursday, said Congress must "update the laws to make sure that the individuals in the Gulf, the fishermen, the hotel owners, families who are dependent for their livelihoods in the Gulf, that they are all made whole." Nevertheless, it is questioned whether a law could be passed focusing only on one company like that. But some law professors and corporate attorneys said some of the Justice Department attorneys could use language in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 to expand BP's oil spill liability.
Time’s up for The Jones Act
The Jones Act which was created to protect jobs may help eliminate jobs now. People who earn a living in fishing, tourism and even the oil industry are watching their livelihoods being destroyed for years to come. The Heritage Foundation points out there are also private sector jobs not being created within the U.S. since the Jones Act prices U.S. companies out of the competitive global market. If mounting public awareness of the law results within the Jones Act being waived, then the BP oil spill is probably the catalyst for repealing it altogether.
A lot more details on this topic
Heritage Foundation
blog.heritage.org/2010/06/08/to-save-the-gulf-send-the-jones-act-to-davy-jones'-locker/
Fox News
liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/06/10/jones-act-slowing-oil-spill-cleanup/?test=latestnews
Wall Street Journal
blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/06/11/on-the-government-bp-and-the-law/
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