The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
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Grabow: US-built container ships cost five times more than international builds
“By the 19 thirties, it was up to a 50% premium for U.S. Built ships. By the 19 fifties, a U.S. Built ship was double the cost of one built abroad. By the 19 nineties, it was triple the cost of one built abroad, and today, a U.S. Built container ship is somewhe…”
Grabow: Foreign shipyard workers earn more than Americans despite building cheaper ships
“Well, the data suggests, actually, that workers in South Korea and Japan and Europe, they make more than Americans, and yet the ships are still significantly cheaper, so that's interesting.”
Grabow: Zero Jones Act-Compliant LNG Tankers Exist in the United States
“We can't transport it by water to other parts of the United States because there are no LNG tankers that comply with the Jones Act.”
Grabow: Ships transport only about 2% of US freight
“If you look at The data, something like only two percent of freight in the United States is transported by ships. You add in barges, that's like another four percent. So we're well under 10% for water transport in the U.S.”
Grabow: East Coast refineries import more foreign oil than domestic oil
“East Coast refineries, say, in the Mid-Atlantic they import more oil from places like Libya or the Middle East or Nigeria than they do from Texas, from the Gulf Coast.”
Grabow: U.S. LNG Tankers Cost $700M to Build Versus Under $200M in South Korea
“A few years ago, the Wall Street Journal estimated that to build an LNG tanker in the United States would cost around seven hundred million dollars, whereas at that time you could buy one for, I think, less than two hundred million in South Korea.”
Grabow: U.S. commercial shipbuilding has been globally uncompetitive since the Civil War
“And U.S. Shipbuilding has been uncompetitive literally, you know, since roughly the end of the Civil War. So, you know, a hundred, a 150 years, something like that.”
Grabow: Hawaii imports LPG from West Africa due to domestic ship shortage
“Hawaii uses LPG, and they import it from as far away as West Africa because they can't get it from the U.S. Mainland because, again, there are no ships to transport it.”
Grabow: U.S. lacks any Jones Act-compliant offshore wind installation vessels
“But in the United States, we can't
Do that because we don't have any vessels wind turbine installation vessels that comply with the Jones Act.”
Grabow: Dominion staged Virginia offshore wind pilot from Canada
“And in fact this is what Dominion Energy did for their offshore wind demonstration project off the coast of Virginia a few years ago
They installed, I think, two turbines, and they did the whole, they ran the whole thing out of Canada, I think St. John, Canad…”
Grabow: Military contracts, not the Jones Act, generate most U.S. shipyard revenue
“Navy contracts, which this is unrelated to the Jones Act, but they also have you know, Navy and military contracts are really their bread and butter. Jones Act is kind of a sideshow for most of them. The majority of revenue is from government contracts.”
Grabow: Alaska law mandates lobbying against Jones Act despite delegation's support
“It is written into Alaskan state law, it is a duty of the governor to lobby for the Jones Act's repeal, and yet all three members of the Alaska delegation are pro-Jones Act.”
Grabow: 1980s GAO study found Jones Act cost Alaska 2% of income
“And the GAO, they did a study back in the eighties about the cost to Alaska with the Jones Act.
They concluded that it cost Alaskans, it was something like the equivalent of two percent of the state's income was the cost of the Jones Act.”
Grabow: Foreign nations have larger salvage cranes and vessels than the US
“Foreigners have much bigger cranes and more capable vessels for doing that kind of work than we do.”
Grabow: Jones Act requires domestic ships be US-built, owned, and crewed
“The Jones Act basically mandates that if you're going to transport something by water within the United States, you have to use a vessel that meets four conditions. The vessel has to be flagged and registered in the United States. It has to be at least 75% own…”
Grabow: 1920 Merchant Marine Act aimed to offload surplus WWI ships
“The United States built a lot of ships during the war. Most of them were delivered after the war was over with. The government found hundreds of, had hundreds of ships on its hands they didn't know what to do with. So they passed the Merchant Marine Act. Prima…”