Energy shortages to plague New England

 Washington Examiner:

A fuel supply crisis in New England has sent consumer utility bills soaring and threatens blackouts this winter — even as the United States exports record volumes of fuel to customers overseas.

New England’s woes are attributable to two factors: its lack of pipeline infrastructure, which prevents it from receiving supplies from other parts of the U.S., and a century-old law known as the Jones Act that limits the delivery of fuel from the rest of the country by ship.

As a result, U.S. fuel continues to be exported at record volumes to the European Union — where gas storage facilities are full and oil is, for now, oversupplied — even as its own residents are starved of that same supply.

The Jones Act has come under heavy criticism in recent months, both from utility company directors and state leaders.

Otherwise known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, the Jones Act requires that any cargo shipped between domestic ports be transported on a U.S.-built, U.S.-registered ship flying the U.S. flag and manned by a majority-U.S. crew.

Though it is aimed at ensuring a minimum strength for the domestic shipping industry, the law inflates shipping costs and limits the availability of cargo ships, making it vastly more expensive for domestic shipping firms to transport fuel across the country. The Maritime Administration estimates that it currently costs 2.7 times as much to ship goods on U.S.-flagged vessels.

This summer, New England’s six state governors asked Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to explore the conditions that the Jones Act might be suspended to grant the Northeast expanded access to U.S. natural gas — noting that, without a Jones Act reprieve, the Northeast must compete with the rest of the world for supplies of liquefied natural gas. There are no Jones Act-compliant LNG tankers.

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The Jones Act should be repealed.  It was a mistake that stifled competition for transport around the US.  Also, the climate kooks should stop the blocking of pipelines to transport natural gas.  It is clear that wind and solar are not viable substitutes for fossil fuels. 

See, also:

Breaking the back of inflation requires energy policy changes