President Obama signs bill promoting LNG export on US-flagged carriers

President Barack Obama signed into law S. 2444, the Howard Coble Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2014.

Earlier this month, this bipartisan legislation passed both Chambers of Congress by unanimous consent.

The law reauthorizes funding for the United States Coast Guard and Coast Guard Reserve, and the Federal Maritime Commission. It also provides policy direction and certainty for these entities and the entire maritime sector. As Ranking Member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee, Congressman John Garamendi, worked closely with Chairman Duncan Hunter to write the bill; negotiated a bipartisan, bicameral compromise; and built support for passage through both chambers of Congress and with the Administration.

The law also incorporates legislation that Congressman Garamendi introduced, H.R. 5270, the Growing American Shipping Act, which requires that the Department of Transportation develop policies that enhance the national security and port safety of the United States by encouraging to the maximum extent practicable the transport of liquefied natural gas on U.S.-built and -flag vessels when it is decided to export. This law aims to maintain the technological ability of the United States shipbuilding industry to build and repair vessels for the Navy and the Coast Guard by maintaining the critical industrial infrastructure and skilled human workforce necessary to build such vessels. Further, this law promotes American job creation by encouraging domestic shipbuilding and the use of U.S. mariners when the transport of American LNG occurs.

“When we export LNG, it should be on ships built in America with American crews,” Garamendi continued. “So long as we choose to export LNG, it should be creating good American jobs in the process, and the revitalization of America’s shipbuilding industry has spiraling impacts that go far beyond this commodity.”

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Press Release; Image: whitehouse.gov