Natural gas home heating in New England will be expensive this winter. Utility companies may face energy shortages, resulting in some families seeing monthly utility bills as high as $1,000 per month.
A limited government solution to this problem exists, but it requires politicians to do something noble: stand up to special interest groups and put the people they represent first. If the federal government were to offer a Jones Act waiver for liquefied natural gas imports to New England, it would help negate these rising energy costs.
New England has no natural gas pipelines, and transporting LNG by rail is controversial. But the region gets plenty of natural gas imported by sea to a terminal in Everett, Massachusetts. Even though the United States is the world’s largest natural gas producer, none of this product is domestic. Instead, New England gets LNG from places such as Trinidad and Tobago, Nigeria, and even Russia.
This is happening because an archaic shipping regulation is protecting a nonexistent industry.
The Jones Act says that for goods to be shipped from one U.S. port to another, the ship must be built, staffed, and operated by Americans. However, almost no ships in the American fleet can make the trek from the Gulf of Mexico to New England to deliver LNG. The few Jones Act-compliant LNG tankers primarily refuel other ships.
If the U.S. has plenty of this resource, why not ship it up from the Gulf of Mexico using an LNG tanker from an ally country with a vibrant shipbuilding industry such as South Korea or Japan?
Supporters of the Jones Act say it’s necessary to protect shipbuilding and staffing jobs. However, no one is shipping LNG from the Gulf of Mexico to New England by water. How can they protect a nonexistent industry?
The cost of living is already horrible in New England. The country faces high inflation, and home heating bills will worsen the problem for New Englanders this winter.
If President Joe Biden’s administration is serious about reducing inflation, this is something it should do. Six New England governors, a bipartisan group of three Republicans and three Democrats, requested a Jones Act LNG waiver for at least part of this winter back in July.
Sadly, the federal government lacks interest in solving this problem. Former President Donald Trump refused to grant Jones Act LNG waivers, and it’s hard to imagine the Biden administration making the change for two reasons. For one, Biden supports the Jones Act. The other: Marty Walsh, who has deep ties to organized labor, is his secretary of labor.
While workers have the right to unionize and fight for their best interests, it doesn’t mean politicians should kowtow to demands that come at the expense of ordinary people.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts.
