That kind of talk was music to some ears. Because the archaic Jones Act still required shipments between U.S. ports to be in U.S.-built ships, American shipyards sensed a building boom for tankers. But there were also problems with the tanker plan. The continental shelf extends for miles and miles off the North Slope coast into the Beaufort Sea and renders the waters off Prudhoe Bay relatively shallow. Huge tankers drawing fifty or more feet of water when loaded would have to take on their cargo perhaps as far as twenty-five miles off shore. This would require an underwater pipeline and a
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