Garamendi seeks support for shipbuilding industry

LNG exports should be carried in American vessels, says the ranking member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.    There is an opportunity to create thousands of U.S. jobs by revitalizing the country’s shipbuilding industry, Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., said in a speech yesterday in Oakland.
   The ranking member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation told the Bay Planning Coalition’s 2015 Decision Makers Conference “export of liquefied natural gas (LNG), when and where deemed appropriate, provides us with a unique opportunity to rebuild the American shipbuilding industry and strengthen our Merchant Marine. When we export LNG, we need to make sure that the export of this natural asset is being conducted by American sailors on American ships. In doing so, we will revitalize America’s shipbuilding industry in a big way.”
   “We’re not building big ships in the United States except for the U.S. Navy. These are strategic national assets,” Congressman Garamendi said.
   “We have an opportunity to make sure that a very significant part of the American economy has an opportunity to blossom and grow – not just the shipyards – but the entire supply chain: electronics, engines, and more,” he added. “Can it be done? Well, it turns out that a lot of shipyards are represented by my Republican friends.”
   He asked the audience for support of his effort in “building the American shipbuilding industry.”
   Garamendi also argued that harbor maintenance funds should not be siphoned off to projects unrelated to improving America’s harbors.
   “California is disproportionately harmed by this practice. Harbor maintenance fund money should be used for what is one of the principal economic opportunities this nation possesses: our ports,” he said.