This winter’s snowfalls have left New Jersey running out of road salt. There’s 40,000 tons of the stuff in Maine ready to be delivered. Problem solved, right?
Wrong.
If the salt in Maine were sent the most expeditious way it could — on the ship it’s now on — it would reach Port Newark in two days.
But it can’t take the most expeditious path because of an absurd law called the Jones Act. This act prevents foreign ships and crews from delivering goods between two US ports.
What does this mean for Jersey towns desperate for the salt? It means the salt in Maine will have to be re-loaded onto smaller ships that will take longer to get here — where it will have to be unloaded again. It’s a good reminder how everyone save a privileged few get hurt when we indulge in protectionism. Given a Marquette University finding that road salt reduces crashes by 88 percent and injuries by 85 percent, the price here can be high.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen the Jones Act threaten to make a bad situation worse. When Katrina devastated New Orleans, President Bush waived the Jones Act so that relief could get to the distressed faster. In like manner, President Obama waived the Jones Act three years ago when he was trying to help lower gas prices faster by allowing bigger foreign tankers to transport crude oil from our reserves to the refineries.
New Jersey has requested a waiver for the salt, and we hope it will come through. Even better would be for Congress to get rid of this relief-killer permanently.