Empty Christmas Stockings? Don't Blame
COVID, Blame California
American Thinker,
by
Andrea Widburg
Original Article
Posted By: Hazymac,
10/15/2021 11:40:44 AM
The conventional wisdom from the left is that COVID is the reason that shipping containers are in the waters off California with no stevedores or truckers available to take care of them. The implication, of course, is that if people would stop being selfish and take the vaccines, the whole problem would magically vanish. That’s nonsense. As a couple of astute articles explain, the problem is that California has passed two laws—one for “climate change” and the other as a sop to the unions—that destroyed much of California’s trucking industry. Add in woes unique to the industry and COVID payments that discourage people from working and...voila!...empty Christmas stockings. CORRECTION*
*Source corrected. Attribution to be to original source, not another site where republished.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
DVC 10/15/2021 11:44:09 AM (No. 946442)
BINGO!
Now we know who did this scrambling of the shipping. California Air Resources Board, known with derision as CARB, wrecks the whole shipping system on the west coast. With the stroke of a pen, they cripple the entire trucking industry in their state.
13 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
VAPMAN 10/15/2021 11:50:31 AM (No. 946452)
It’s so obvious, blame everything that Biden and his leftists comrades have screwed up on the minority of people who have not taken the vaccine. The answer to them is simply drop your stupid mandate and see what happens.
6 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
earlybird 10/15/2021 12:10:12 PM (No. 946476)
Um, did you read what else Widburg had to say?
But of course, the more serious underlying problem is that, in a distant, wonderful past, America didn’t need to rely on containers from Asia to fill her store shelves and Christmas stockings. America was a manufacturing dynamo that fulfilled American needs and still had enough left over for the rest of the world. Those things were well-made, too.
So our American Christmas is now reliant upon cheap goods imported from China? A very sad commentary that has absolutely nothing to do with those two California laws. Look again. Who really caused this kind of thing to possibly spoil a Christmas?
13 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
DVC 10/15/2021 12:10:46 PM (No. 946477)
And to 'solve the problem' of diesel powered semi-trucks' with 400 hp engines.....they make dozens, soon to be hundreds(?), of ships sit offshore with their 100,000 hp diesels running. Every ship is equivalent to hundreds of semi-trucks in exhaust output....blowing ashore on prevailing westerlies.
And I doubt that the ship diesels are California compliant for emissions. They are designed for efficiency, only.
12 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
DVC 10/15/2021 12:13:18 PM (No. 946480)
And, the ships us high sulfur fuels, also illegal in California. So, California makes their pollution WORSE by making these ships sit around longer.
8 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Bur Oak 10/15/2021 12:22:14 PM (No. 946491)
Also blame the Biden administration. Federal emission regulations are preeminent. They override California regulations and California regulation can be enforced only if the feds give them a waiver.
3 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
lftrn97 10/15/2021 12:34:54 PM (No. 946508)
#4...stop with the logic! More whiteness.
5 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Starboard_side 10/15/2021 12:37:45 PM (No. 946513)
#4 and 5, that is completely false. All ships burn low-sulfur fuel, and have within the ECA zone of most ports around the world for years.
Due to IMO fuel regulation they had to switch to low-sulfur fuel for their whole voyage, or install scrubbers.
Now, ships anchored and waiting longer than they need, or should, is not ideal, but it's a very complicated issue and no one in the industry sees any single silver bullet to fix the problem.
Companies are waiting longer to pick up the cargo (due to full warehouses) which add to terminal dwell times.
Companies hold the containers (with the chassis) at their warehouse longer too, again, adding to dwell times and inability to "turn" that equipment.
The Pool of Pools, which manages the chassis in the port complex, have been trying to bring on new chassis at a record pace - a new order from Hyundai in Mexico to build chassis won't be ready until 2023 due to their backlog of orders.
4 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
DVC 10/15/2021 12:50:49 PM (No. 946535)
Well, the engine companies designed the engines to use "the widely used high sulfur fuels" according to the articles I have read on the giant diesels in these ships. They are designed with special top cylinder oil injection with the oil designed to counteract the acids from the high sulfur fuels.
Perhaps a European shipping company might comply, but they aren't the only ones out there.
And anyone that believes that Chinese and Liberian registered tankers don't burn "illegal" fuel when on the high seas also probably believes in unicorns.
7 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Jack Ryan 10/15/2021 12:51:00 PM (No. 946536)
I don't know why California bothered mandating electric trucks. They should have been more forward thinking (er, progressive?) and gone straight to teleportation machines. Then, we wouldn't even need container ships. There, problem solved.
7 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
bad-hair 10/15/2021 1:18:07 PM (No. 946571)
Port of Houston is ticking right along.
The Republic of Texas approaches.
Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, S Dakota, N Dakota, Montana, Alberta (Canada), Saskatchewan (Canada), Manitoba (Canada), and a few states along the sides. Let's go EAST. Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida.
We have every shipping port in The Gulf of Mexico and half the Atlantic and more oil than the Saudis ever dreamed of.
California and New York can print their own money. If they want to trade they can use Panama. We WILL protect our borders ,north, south, east, and west.
If you're coming to visit Texas bring your US passport with the pre-approved visitor's visa.
4 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
downnout 10/15/2021 1:30:46 PM (No. 946595)
This needs to be sent to every TV station and newspaper in the country. This is what the Green New Deal will look like. It ain’t pretty, folks.
4 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
jimincalif 10/15/2021 1:41:32 PM (No. 946610)
So California's enviro-nazis enact rules requiring "greener" trucks. As a consequence there are not enough trucks to move the containers. So the containers pile up, and then incoming ships pile up and have to anchor offshore to wait their turns to offload. More and more ships are anchoring farther and farther out, and one of them ends up dragging its anchor across an oil pipeline serving one of the offshore rigs, resulting in a 25,000 gallon oil spill that polluted the ocean, beaches and wildlife. New headline - California Environmental Regulations Cause Environmental Disaster.
5 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Birddog 10/15/2021 2:39:40 PM (No. 946691)
I isn't just those two Laws...new taxes have Diesel more expensive in CA than anywhere else, and of a different formula that can ruin older trucks. I have a friend with three trucks in Ca. He only fills them up at stations east of the border in response, he also bought and installed a tank at his "Ranch", allowing him to buy Ag exempt fuel for his tractors, that "Sometimes" gets used in his trucks if needed.
There were also changes made in rules/regs on the "Carriages", trailers used to haul containers...don't remember now whether it was actually structural or merely Brakes/Lights/Electrical...but short haulers vs long haulers ended up having to have a "Universal" design/Build Cert. and a YUUUUGE number of the trailers were no longer allowed.
It had something to do with smaller local drivers/companies short hauling to offsite sorting facilities and re-shipping onwards...vs the "Govt Partnered" Inter-modal mega yards/Corps that were/are Govt/Corp collaborations with Ports, major trucking companies, Rail Companies, airfreighters, Unions. Not just in CA but Nationwide.
It isn't even "New", as early as the late 70's/early 80's a friend and I used to hop freights from Tex-CA, there was an LA HOT container train that everything else pulled over and let go by...it ran from CA seaports to New Orleans seaports, by passing the P.Canal. The eastbound/west bound trains would meet in Valentine Texas and switch crews, each then returning "Home". They have taken that "Smart Shipping" concept nationwide/Global.
2 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
edgar 10/15/2021 3:50:15 PM (No. 946753)
I cannot imagine that California has the only ports of entry for shipping containers.
0 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Philipsonh 10/15/2021 5:53:30 PM (No. 946877)
So the shippers didn't know that unloading in Ca. was detrimental to their health ?
How about going to ports OUTSIDE of Ca. and letting Ca. suffer the shortages and extra expenses of getting the goods. They deserve it as they vote for the Blue screwballs. Lastly, did this shortage exist during the 4 Trump years ?? Just askin'.
0 people like this.
Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "Hazymac"
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
Comments: