A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT directing the legislative research commission to study the economic impact of the jones act on north carolina.
Whereas, since 1920, the Jones Act has required that all domestic coastwise trade in the United States be carried on vessels built and flagged in this country; and
Whereas, today, the size of the U.S. flag fleet is less than 200 vessels compared to over 3,000 ships in the 1960s and presently has less than 49 eligible tankers in the entire United States eligible under the Jones Act; and
Whereas, the increase in domestic crude oil production has drastically reduced the price of U.S. petroleum products and increased the domestic demand for those products; and
Whereas, there is a shortage of vessels flagged in the United States to bring crude oil and petroleum products from the Gulf of Mexico to the East Coast; and
Whereas, this scarcity increases the cost of transporting to East Coast facilities oil that is either produced in the Gulf of Mexico or which is produced elsewhere in the United States and reaches port in the Gulf; and
Whereas, the shortage of vessels has created winter‑time shortages of domestic heating oil and other products for some regions of the East Coast; and
Whereas, the higher transportation costs of petroleum products caused by the requirement to use vessels built and flagged in the United States in the coastwise trade have had an adverse impact on petroleum distributors and marketers in North Carolina, forcing some of them out of business; and
Whereas, North Carolina fuel terminals have gone out of business or may soon go out of business due to the cost and shortage of Jones Act compliant ships; and
Whereas, oil product pipelines can be, and have been, put out of commission by storms, making it critical to use ships to get petroleum products to North Carolina and elsewhere along the East Coast; and
Whereas, the petroleum terminals that previously existed in North Carolina saved our economy and public safety by providing backup fuel supplies when Hurricane Katrina shut down the Colonial Pipeline; and
Whereas, this Homeland Security backup supply of petroleum may be going out of business due to required compliance with the Jones Act; Now, therefore,
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  The Legislative Research Commission shall study the economic impacts of the U.S. Jones Act on North Carolina. The Commission shall include the following issues within this study:
(1)	Fuel shipping to fuel terminals.
(2)	Shipping to ports.
(3)	Beach nourishment.
(4)	Inlet and intracoastal waterways maintenance.
(5)	River and port harbor maintenance and deepening.
SECTION 2.  The Legislative Research Commission may make an interim report to the 2015 General Assembly when it reconvenes in 2016 and shall make its final report to the 2017 General Assembly when it convenes.
SECTION 3.  This act is effective when it becomes law.