The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has prepared a fact sheet to address what it describes as “key myths” regarding proposed legislation impacting citizenship crewing requirements for vessels engaged in the US offshore energy sector.
The fact sheet refers to the proposed legislative amendments, called the American Offshore Worker Fairness Act, now pending before the US Senate.
“There remains much more to comprehend regarding the potential of this proposed legislation and there are many inaccuracies related to the purported rationale for the need for enactment of this legislation,” said IMCA chief executive Allen Leatt.
In addition, the American Clean Power Association has recently published a publicly available germane paper on Offshore Wind and Maritime Crewing.
Under the proposed legislation, entities more than 50% foreign owned/controlled would be limited to using mariners and industrial workers from the vessel’s flag State or US citizens/aliens lawfully admitted to the U.S. for permanent residence.
Additionally, under the proposed legislation, the number of individuals crewing a vessel that are citizens of the flag State or Green Card Holders cannot exceed two and a half times the number of individuals required to man or crew the vessel under the laws of the flag State, and all foreign seafarers must have a valid Transportation Worker Identification Card (TWIC).
IMCA said that one of the myths is that opponents of the legislation are advocating against Americans and American workers.
In its new factsheet IMCA stated: “To the contrary, opponents of this legislation support Americans and American workers and work with the Jones Act fleet on many projects.
“Trained and experienced mariners are needed to crew US flag offshore vessels for numerous categories of vessels to support offshore oil and gas and wind projects.
“The intent of the current exemption law under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) is to protect US citizens from retaliation when working on a US-flag vessel, on a foreign continental shelf, from being forced to be replaced with a foreign citizen by that coastal nation.
“Enactment of this proposal would have the opposite intended effect by disrupting and derailing offshore US work and result in foreign countries potentially retaliating against US flag vessels working offshore globally.”