Date of Award

4-24-1975

Degree Type

Major Paper

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Marine Affairs

Abstract

During the past two years of the 93rd Congress, no less than eleven different bills were introduced to deal with the various aspects of deep-water port development. Much has been made of the supposition that with energy conservation, higher petroleum prices, import quotas and all the other gas-saving ideas in vogue, deepwater ports have become an anachronism of pre-energy crisis days, the days of world-scale 400 in tankers and dreams of million-ton ULCC's. The truth of the matter is that we shall still, for an indeterminate period, require imported oil, by the dictum of economics, it will come via the VLCC, and it will need to be off-loaded via the quickest and safest means possible. For better or worse, necessary or not, the Deepwater Port Act of 1974 was signed by President Ford as Public law 93-627 on January 3, 1975. The purpose of this work will be to examine this legislation, identify potential problems created, and suggest a decision-making framework within which coastal zone management agencies or other bodies can operate when faced with a deepwater port application.

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