Charybdis Ship

Canary: "US offshore wind needs American-made ships. The first is nearly ready." The Jones Act, more formally known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, was enacted in an attempt to bolster American shipbuilders and merchant seamen in the isolationist spell following World War I. The Act "mandates...ships carrying goods between American ports must be made in the US, flagged in the US, owned by Americans, and staffed by an American workforce." The Virginia electric utility Dominion Energy had to get into the shipbuilding business to get the offshore vessel for installing wind turbines up to 12 megawatt or MW size. 'The hull welding on the 472-foot vessel is complete, as are its four enormous legs, which will hoist it out of the water during turbine installation,' as depicted in the photo. "This $625 million leviathan, named Charybdis after the fearsome sea-monster foe of Odysseus, still needs some finishing touches before it sets sail to Virginia, which is expected to happen later this year." The offshore wind industry is already struggling with 'soaring costs and supply-chain challenges.' "Several Atlantic projects have fallen through in the last year; three in New York got canceled just last Friday. Danish firm Ørsted specifically faulted a lack of available ships when it canceled two New Jersey projects last fall." Dominion’s electricity customers won’t pay for building the ship itself, though they will pay for the cost of using Charybdis for the installation, per a decision by Virginia’s State Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities. As a private, regulated utility, this seems only fair. When Georgia Power Company's Plant Vogtle nuclear reactors 3 + 4 were under construction, the utility had customers paying for years, then boosted their electricity rates as the generators went into service. What's not fair, is not fair.