Colin Grabow, a researcher at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, says the reason the Jones Act lasts so long is because it tends to benefit only a few people and businesses, while many payers He said this is because the law does not attract attention because the interests are shared. Increased costs.
The Jones Act is one of a series of protectionist laws dating back to the Tariff Act of 1789 aimed at strengthening the U.S. maritime industry. The existence of the Jones Act was intended to ensure the immediate supply of ships and sailors in case of war. The authors reasoned that protection from foreign competition would help.
“The average American doesn't even know the Jones Act exists,” Grabow said. “For many people, it's not life-changing,” he added. But “all Americans are being hurt by the Jones Act.” In this case, it is done by delaying the United States' ability to meet its own wind power goals.
Grabow said the people who are most vocal about the law – those who build, operate or operate compliant vessels – typically want to keep it in place.
Of course, there's more going on in this country's slow rollout of offshore wind power than 100-year-old shipping laws. Abraham Silverman, a renewable energy expert at New York's Columbia University, said a number of factors were needed to sink the proposed Ocean Wind installation in New Jersey.
Ultimately, rising interest rates, inflation and other macroeconomic factors put the New Jersey project at its most vulnerable stage, inflating construction costs after Ørsted had already secured financing, Silverman said. says.
Despite the setbacks, the potential for offshore wind power in the United States is enormous. NREL estimates that fixed-bottom offshore wind farms in the country could theoretically generate about 1,500 gigawatts of electricity. This is more than the United States can generate today.
There are many things the United States can do to make expansion into offshore wind more efficient. And that's where the focus should be now, says Matthew Shields, an engineer at NREL who specializes in the economics and technology of wind energy.
“If we build 15, 20 or 25 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, it probably won't change much from a climate perspective,” Shields said. But if by building the first few turbines he could build 100 gigawatts or he could build 200 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2050, that would make a big difference, he said. Masu. “If we solve all these problems and are satisfied with sustainable development going forward, then for me that would be a real victory.”
But today, some of the problems in the offshore wind industry are unavoidably attributable to the Jones Act. These inefficiencies mean money lost and, perhaps more importantly, time in the rush to carbon neutrality.
