On January 3, 1975, the Deepwater Ports Act of 1974¹ was signed into law, and the United States thereby prepared to join the sizeable fraternity of nations already using this type of facility. Congressional consideration of deepwater ports—offshore tanker moorings at which oil is unloaded and piped ashore—led House and Senate committees through a tangle of vexing issues, including supertanker design, conflicting local and national interests, international law, antitrust implications, and the ubiquitous clash between energy needs and environmental considerations. The legislation, which was backed by both the Nixon and Ford administrations, gives primary responsibility for licensing and regulating deepwater ports beyond the three-mile limit to the Secretary of Transportation and contains strong environmental safeguards. The immediate effect of the Act, therefore, is to extend federal jurisdiction to facilities beyond the territorial waters of the United States, and thereby fill the regulatory void which has so far deterred deepwater port development.