The most important advisory body concerning the Nation’s inland waterways infrastructure is the Inland Waterways Users Board (IWUB), a Congressionally mandated, non-discretionary advisory committee established in the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 1986 and codified by 33 U.S.C. § 2251.
A few months ago, I authored an article for Marine News focused on just one of the many successful features of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (“OPA 90,” Pub. L. No. 101-380 (1990)) — Alaska’s regional citizen advisory councils (RCACs). The Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet RCACs were established under OPA 90 to work with oil and gas industry interests on behalf of the surrounding communities to
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently issued a decision upholding the Federal Maritime Commission’s (FMC) determination that detention fees levied on a trucker by an ocean common carrier during a three-day port closure were unreasonable. The federal appeals court unanimously denied all aspects of the petition filed by the carrier, Evergreen Shipping Agency (America) Corp.
On March 17, 2026, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security took the extraordinary step of issuing a sweeping waiver of the Jones Act at the request of the U.S. Department of Defense. The waiver, one of the broadest in the history of the nation’s cabotage laws, opened U.S. domestic waterways to foreign-flagged and foreign-built vessels carrying hundreds of energy and agricultural commodity types.
Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) Chairman Laura DiBella joined the U.S. delegation to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) this week for the 84th session of the Maritime Environmental Protection Committee in London. As part of the delegation, Chairman DiBella is reinforcing the U.S.’s opposition to the IMO Net-Zero Framework (NZF). The NZF is, plainly, an unnecessary tax on U.S.
After spending about 3 billion dollars, the Constellation frigate program was shut down with absolutely nothing to show for it.The New York Times produced an Op-Ed titled “America can’t make what the Navy Needs.”That title may indicate the United States does not have the technical ability to build ships for the US Navy.
The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC or Commission) launched an investigation related to possible non-compliance of the Shipping Act by ocean common carriers that may be unjustly and unreasonably restricting motor carriers (truckers) and shippers in their choice of chassis providers.
The Jones Act at 46 U.S.C. § 55102 forms the basis of U.S. domestic waterborne commerce by limiting the transportation of merchandise between U.S. points to vessels that are U.S.-built, U.S.-owned, U.S.-crewed, and U.S.-flagged. The Jones Act contains a limited exception known as the “Third Proviso” that permits certain domestic shipments to move through Canada using multimodal transportation
During a U.S. naval test off the California coast last month, which was designed to showcase the Pentagon’s top autonomous drone boats, one vessel stalled unexpectedly.As officials scrambled to fix a software glitch, another drone vessel smashed into the idling boat’s starboard side, vaulted over the deck, and crashed back into the water – an incident captured in videos obtained by Reuters.
When the EXXON VALDEZ ran aground in Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989, it was an action-forcing event that led to what was the most substantial overhaul of our federal oil spill prevention, preparedness, and response regime in the Nation’s history. But the event that really got policymakers and experts started thinking about such a sweeping re-rack of federal law actually occurred a
The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has issued a statement saying it is closely monitoring the impact the current conflict in the Middle East is having on shipping conditions through the Strait of Hormuz.Under its statutory authority, the Commission ensures that rates, charges, and rules that common carriers have implemented as a result of the threats to commercial shipping in the Strait and