Although the Columbia River looked fairly affable and calm that day, Mother Nature often ensures the river is neither of those things. His top priorities, Cline said, are "just keeping everybody safe and keeping the tow in one piece." On the water, he added, "we don't go in a straight line."
Last summer's drought that continued through the winter wasn't just bad news for ranchers and farmers. There were big worries about what it would mean to the Mississippi River, too.
The Jones Act is a tremendous competitive advantage for Puerto Rico, creating a closed loop of shipping routes to and from the U.S. mainland, and offering other benefits that combined, save retailers and manufacturers more than $120 million each year on their cargo shipments.
The maritime industry has been a pillar of the economy for as long as shipping vessels have delivered goods and commodities to American shores. In no small part, the Jones Act has been the engine driving this success for nearly a century, requiring that any ship carrying cargo between two ports in the U.S. be American-built, owned and crewed.
