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"It costs six dollars per barrel to move crude from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast United States on a Jones Act tanker:

I think the bigger questions are:

* Why isn't it easier to build a refinery in the Gulf Coast and then ship the refined products to the North East?
* After said refinement, that is why isn't then their a Pipeline to ship said refined crude to the North East?
* An even bigger question is what are the Gas and Oil Resources in the North East and why aren't they extracting them?

Perhaps Nimbyism and the EPA are two issues the Senator is forgetting about?

Interesting points you have, there.

I am more concerned about the build of the ship and the ability of the ship's workers than I am that such ships MUST be built in the US.

We should require these close port-to-port ships be run entirely by American citizens who will care more about ensuring the safety and integrity of their operation.

So on this, I agree with McLame.

There is excess refining capacity on the gulf coast, but the refineries are set up for heavy crude that previously came from Venezuela. As I pointed out in reply 15, these gulf coast refineries want the heavy oil from Canada and want the pipeline built.

Meanwhile the refineries on the east coast and west coast are set up to refine light oil that was imported, commonly called Brent crude, which carries a premium price and they want the light shale oil from Texas and Dakota to replace the imported oil.

The underlying problem, is that it is illegal for US producers to export oil, except to Canada and Mexico because of NAFTA. Also except for Obama's recent bending of the rules that allows US producers to export light condensate oil. Congress needs to change the law on exports.

In recent weeks Mexico has cut their price of heavy crude being exported to the US because they are worried about losing market share to the Alberta tar sands oil. They have also requested an increase in the amount of condensate oil that they import from the US.

Its an oil transportation problem. Getting the sweet light oil being produced in Texas and the Dakotas where it needs to be. Getting the tar sands oil being produced in Canada to where it need to be.

Its definitely not a problem in refining capacity, so they don't want to build new refineries.

Those are all very good points.

I would also like to see a breakdown of McCain's math, and a consideration of all the factors that enter into the costs. Here's a recent Congressional publication about this: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43653.pdf

It seems that the fleet of US-built ships is fairly small. This is part of the problem, because there are delays in booking these vessels. It also seems that most tankers in the world are already built in Korea, China, and Japan - so we've already ceded this industry to foreign nations in a big way.

I would like to see the opposite - a strategy to increase the number of US-built ships in the international fleet. Also, what are the potential security and environmental consequences of taking American control away from the building and piloting of these vessels?