On October 28, 2025 U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation’s Subcommittee on Coast Guard, Maritime, and Fisheries, convened the Senate hearing “Sea Change: Reviving Commercial Shipbuilding”. This hearing examined how to modernize and accelerate U.S.
We are well into the discussions advising shipbuilders and operators how the U.S. will create a renaissance of the maritime industry. Federal Legislation, Executive Orders, and new foreign partnerships driving the promise of commercial competitiveness with the leading global shipbuilders. Most of the shipbuilding rhetoric indicates the domestic markets will be left to survive on their own.
Dating back to the year 1786, Thomas Jefferson wrote to a member of the Continental Congress on the importance of free press keeping government in check. He was quoted as saying if he had a choice between “a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to choose the latter.
With all the Legislative fanfare, Executive Orders, Committee meetings, lobbying efforts and media announcements concerning American Shipbuilding, Naval Warfare and Maritime Dominance, it is no surprise that the result of the uproar is shear confusion within the maritime industrial base (MIB).
By the time Robbie Roberge spotted the fire consuming his boat's galley last August, he knew he had just minutes to evacuate his beloved Three Girls fishing vessel, named for his daughters.As the flames spread up the boat's walls, he helped his crew into safety suits, deployed a life raft and made a mayday call to alert nearby mariners and the U.S.
Confusion over new fuels will not be helped by the fact that each one has a good and bad version. The science on grey ammonia, grey methanol, and palm oil biofuel show that these are probably worse for the planet, if adopted, than unfettered continuation of fossil fuel consumption.
The Unified Command, consisting of the US Coast Guard, Spectrum OpCo (Operator), and the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator's Office (LOSCO), continue to respond an oil and natural gas release in coastal Louisiana.This spill occurred on April 26 in a marsh environment near the Garden Island Bay Production Facility company's well in Plaquemines Parish, southeast of New Orleans, Louisiana.
The maritime industry has worked with a single fuel source for over a century and with the rush to meet emission standards in both domestic and foreign markets, adapting to the current list of alternative fuels is going to present significant problems. Each market has its issues whether bluewater, brownwater, coastal, foreign or domestic.
UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography issued a request for proposals (RFP) to select a shipyard for the final design and construction of its new 163-ft. Coastal Class Research Vessel (CCRV), reportedly the first oceanographic research ship to primarily operate on renewable fuels.
The shipping industry has been watching the dual-fuel engine choices made for newbuildings as an indicator of what many see as an uncertain fuel future.In December, DNV’s Alternative Fuels Insights platform counted 27 ammonia and 322 methanol-fueled vessels currently on the orderbooks.Methanol has raced ahead of ammonia, which currently lags in both engine and regulatory development.
The maritime industry’s elusive quest to achieve so-called ‘zero’ emissions continues. Where it ends is not a one-size-fits-all discussion.The year-end maritime industry discussions tend to move away from global influence and back drift to national and domestic debates. As this happens
Each year, as we prepare for the largest U.S. based maritime industry conference in New Orleans, we tend to look back on the state of the industry and initiatives that were announced from the conference that took place the year before. 2023 provided us with plenty to talk about. In September of 2023