Washington State’s Junior Senator, Maria Cantwell (D) has perked up the ears of the maritime community with recent comments about the Jones Act. At a hearing of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee on July 16th, the senator called for greater transparency in gasoline markets and refinery shutdowns. Senator Cantwell highlighted a new report demonstrating that West Coast gasoline prices have broken from historic trends since April 2012. The senator noted that in Washington State, prices had risen 9 cents in the past week and were 27 cents higher than the national average.
“Washington state prices are among some of the highest in the nation,” she said, noting that last year’s West Coast refinery fire was unfairly blamed for a spike in prices (see Pacific Maritime Magazine, September 2012) saying, “My constituents want to see more transparency there. Hamburger probably has more regulation on it than gasoline.”
During a presentation to the committee, Faisel Khan, Managing Director of Citi Research claimed that one of the reasons for spikes in gas prices was the Jones Act, and told the committee that the cost of moving crude by Jones Act tanker could be three to six-times the price of using non-Jones Act tankers…… (Read Full Article)
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