MaritimeFedWatch

On June 11, 2020, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, Chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation, introduced the “Maritime Administration Authorization and Improvement Act.” The bill, to be considered by the U.S. Congress, would, among other things, re-authorize the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD).

On March 8, 2018, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a sale of seven million barrels of sweet crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Offers are due by a specified time on March 21.

The U.S. Coast Guard issued a final rule on September 20, 2017, amending its U.S.-flag vessel documentation regulations. The final rule responds, in part, to an October 18, 2013 petition for rulemaking submitted by the U.S. Maritime Law Association (MLA) seeking to make both technical and substantive clarifying changes to existing regulations.

On October 9, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to accelerate increased funding for the U.S. Maritime Security Program (MSP). MSP provides financial support to 60 particularly militarily useful U.S.-flag vessels engaged in the foreign trade. The context was the consideration by the House of Representatives of H.R. 702, a bill authorizing unrestricted U.S. crude oil exports.

In a decision issued on September 15, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama followed precedents from a number of courts that hold that the U.S. has criminal jurisdiction over violations of the Act for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, even though the underlying actions – allegedly wrongful discharges of oily wastes and plastics and false entries in records books – were committed on the high seas.

Although there have been numerous recent studies on the potential economic impact of U.S. crude oil exports, it was not until recently that the U.S. Government issued its own study directly on those effects. On September 1, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued “Effects of Removing Restrictions on U.S. Crude Oil Exports,” which concluded (with a number of caveats and assumptions) that removal of remaining U.S. crude oil export restrictions would either leave U.S. gasoline prices unchanged or slightly reduced.

On August 5, 2015, the U.S. Maritime Administration proposed new rules for the U.S. Maritime Security Program (MSP). MSP secures the services of 60 privately owned U.S.-flag vessels for the U.S. Government in exchange for an annual stipend currently set at $3.1 million. The largest participant in the Program is Maersk Line, Limited.