Supposedly for the sake of stabilizing world oil prices, but also at the expense of creating American jobs, the Obama administration decided this summer to use foreign-owned ships to transport oil from the U.S. stockpile. The big winners in the decision were the oil companies that bought the oil because it saved them money.

 

Claiming that the Libya conflict was cutting into international petroleum supplies, President Barack Obama agreed to release nearly 30 million barrels from the nation’s strategic reserves. But because of alleged tight deadlines for delivering the oil, the administration decided to waive the 91-year-old Jones Act, which mandates that American ships carry domestic cargo unless it’s a national emergency. Officials felt the need to keep worldwide oil prices from going up constituted just such an emergency.

 

The decision, though, prevented more than 30 U.S. maritime vessels from transporting the oil, and left 400 American sailors without the work.

 

“This has literally flabbergasted the American maritime industry,” Christopher Coakley, vice president for legislative affairs at The American Waterways Operators, an association of domestic ship and barge operators, told The New York Times. “The idea was to create American jobs and help the economy. But all the profit from the sale of the oil has gone to traders and oil companies and all the profit from movement of the oil has gone to foreign shippers and crewmen, and that’s galling.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Oil Reserves Sidestep U.S. Vessels (by John Broder, New York Times)