Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Tuesday, August 6, 1996
Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Tuesday, August 6, 1996
The Hawaii chapter of the national Maritime Cabotage Task Force says it will help lobby the U.S. Congress to resist efforts to revise or repeal the 1920 Jones Act, a federal law that requires cargo and passengers transported between U.S. ports be carried on U.S.-crewed, owned and registered ships.
Jones Act supporters contend that the law ensures the quality of shipping service to U.S. ports and is essential to national security by maintaining American ownership and control over a domestic fleet. The U.S. maritime industry, they say, would be at a disadvantage if it had to compete with outside companies that are heavily subsidized by foreign governments and don't have to comply with expensive U.S. regulations.
The Jones Act recently has come under intense criticism in Hawaii and nationally. Critics contend that the law needlessly protects U.S. shipping concerns at the expense of American consumers. Local critics, including state legislators and Hawaii's cattle industry, say the law greatly adds to the high cost of living and doing business in the islands.
Two bills have been introduced in the U.S. House and Senate to change the law.
"Hawaii is key to how this issue is perceived in Washington," said Murray Grune, board chairman of Hawaii Stevedores Inc. and co-chairman of the task force's Hawaii chapter. "Given the recent attacks here in Hawaii on the Jones Act by the state consumer advocate and others, we feel it is an excellent time to organize a local Hawaii chapter of the MCTF and get the real facts out."
The company today said that it earned $280,000 for the three months ending June 30, or double the year-earlier period's $140,000.
On a per-share basis, Barnwell netted 21 cents during its fiscal third quarter, up from 11 cents in the year-earlier quarter.
For the first nine months of its fiscal year, the company earned $840,000, or 63 cents per share, up from $480,000, or 36 cents per share last year.
Morton Kinzler, Barnwell's chairman and chief executive, attributed the improved quarterly results in part to a 21 percent rise in natural gas prices. The Honolulu-based company, which drills for natural gas and oil in Canada and is developing land on the Big Island, also benefited from a lower tax rate in Canada, he said.