Customs Rejects Challenges To Offshore Wind Scour Protection Jones Act Ruling

On January 7, 2022, Customs and Border Protection sent letters to three trade associations declining to revisit its March 25, 2021, Jones Act ruling on the definition of a “point in the United States” for purposes of installing scour protection or foundations for an offshore wind farm. The letters were made available on February 9, 2022, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. As a result, CBP's March 25, 2021 ruling remains the best available guidance on what a foreign-flag vessel can lawfully do with respect to the installation of foundations or scour protection on the U.S. outer continental shelf in compliance with the Jones Act.

The Jones Act restricts the “transportation” of “merchandise” between two “points in the United States” to qualified U.S.-flag vessels. Similar laws apply to the transportation of “passengers,” and “dredging,” “towing,” and “salvage” in U.S. waters. The Jones Act applies organically to U.S. physical territory out to three