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Interstate Commerce

New Jersey’s senators have asked federal agencies to let their snowy state have some road salt. There was 40,000 tons of the stuff sitting in Maine, a two-day voyage from Newark — but that voyage would be illegal without a federal waiver. The 1920 Jones Act says ships carrying goods from one U.S. port to another must fly the American flag, and the ship that state officials wanted to use doesn’t. The feds denied the waiver. Thomas A. Allegretti, a maritime-industry lobbyist who defends the Jones Act, complained that the state had provided “short notice,” and added that domestic “maritime operators are moving to accelerate a request for additional salt.” (AC/Newark Star-Ledger, WKXW Trenton) ...In other words, they stopped other people from helping, and then they generously promised help.
Original Publication Date: 23 February 2014
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 20.

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