When Americans think of our coastlines, most picture the beaches of the Atlantic, the Pacific, or the Gulf. But the Great Lakes are America’s fourth coast — a 2,300-mile expanse reaching deep into the nation’s industrial heartland. Each year, this system moves more than 135 million tons of cargo worth over $26 billion, carrying the raw materials that power American industry: iron ore for steel, coal for energy, limestone for construction, and grain that feeds the world.
America’s “comeback” is impossible without the Great Lakes, because of these critical cargoes. The issue, though, is that every winter, this powerhouse faces a perennial challenge: ice.
Despite its coastline, the U.S. Coast Guard operates just one heavy domestic icebreaker on the Great Lakes, the 240-foot Mackinaw. It is a capable ship, what the industry and Coast Guard would call a “heavy” icebreaking vessel, but one vessel cannot be in two places at once. When ice jams up two channels simultaneously, tough choices must be made about which channel to clear and which to leave blocked.
Medium-sized icebreaking cutters can help, but even two or three working together cannot break through the thickest ice. America cannot rely solely on privately operated ice-breaking tugboats, which are even smaller and less effective outside of light port maintenance.
The consequences are costly. In some winters, ice blockages have caused flooding across the Detroit suburbs. These are blockages that a heavy ice breaker could have easily solved. Zooming out to larger impacts across the region and country: ships get stuck, factories delay production, and energy deliveries face disruption. Even a few days of lost cargo can ripple outward: idling assembly lines, inflating costs, and putting jobs at risk.
This is not just a Great Lakes issue. Other major manufacturing states depend on the cargo transported on the Great Lakes. In Texas, 865,000 jobs depend on the steel supply chain based around the Great Lakes. In California, 691,000 jobs rely on Midwestern coal and iron. The list goes on.
Every one of those jobs depends on reliable winter navigation. Without it, we risk supply chain bottlenecks in the very sectors that make America strong: steel, autos, energy, and construction.
Building a second Great Lakes icebreaker represents a national economic investment to keep these supply chains running and reduce the need to import foreign steel, foreign grain, foreign limestone, and foreign coal.
The U.S. House of Representatives has recognized this need; however, as part of the negotiation process for President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, lawmakers cut the funding for this second icebreaker. Lawmakers from the region saw the danger clearly. In a June letter to Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), nine Republican members of Congress urged that funding for a new heavy Great Lakes icebreaker be restored in the Senate reconciliation bill.
They pointed out that while the package included every other type of Coast Guard icebreaker, it left out the Great Lakes vessel. But that is not the end-all-be-all.
At a time when agreement across the aisle is rare, there is a broad bipartisan consensus on the need for a stronger maritime sector. President Trump issued an executive order to “restore American maritime dominance,” charting a course to strengthen U.S. shipyards and expand our workforce of 650,000 men and women. Before him, President Joe Biden directed an investigation into Chinese shipbuilding, which continues under this administration, underscoring the risks of falling behind global competitors. And now, Democrats and Republicans together have reintroduced the SHIPS for America Act to accelerate domestic vessel construction and modernization.
A new Great Lakes icebreaker embodies this maritime moment perfectly. American workers would build it in a U.S. shipyard using American steel, and it would serve a uniquely American mission: keeping our inland seas open so our economy can thrive.
Congress now has the opportunity to act. Looking at the legislative calendar for the rest of the year, multiple vehicles exist for America to take itself seriously and not let ice stop the nation from moving. The Coast Guard Authorization bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, and the potential second reconciliation bill suggested by Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger could all provide Americans the relief they need.
By investing in this vessel, lawmakers can deliver a win for the heartland, for American industry, and for the nation as a whole. We will measure the return not just in steel and grain shipments, but in jobs, paychecks, and economic security for millions of Americans. Our great nation and our Great Lakes need another great heavy icebreaker!
James Weakley is president of the Lake Carriers’ Association. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.
Reprinted with permission from DC Journal by James Weakley.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
Five Great Lakes and one old icebreaker. Doesn’t add up. At a minimum, there should be at least 3 icebreakers in the region to do the winter’s job. WAKE UP US Congress.
The USCGC Mackinaw is old and though, kept in decent shape, it is still old and I would imagine parts are not made for it anymore. If it breaks down then there is no american ship to back it up therefore we must rely on Canada. The Chinese owns and operates the largest merchant fleet while we do not and must rely on foreign nations for most of out supplies.Silly to think, If we go to war we must rely on foreign shipping. Our merchant marine is virtually non- existant. For a time the Chinese also mangaged our largest sea ports.Does anyone, in Washington, care about the American people. Medicines , electronics , clothing made over seas and we are just now waking up to the facts. We are a good Nation but we used to be a Great Nation, I blame our Congress which continues to be a one party Nation with two parties voting the same. Hopefully this gets some people thinkingand questioning!!!
Everything involved in Shipbuilding is of importance
The economic aspects of having the right vessels in the right places at the right time ,the matter of being an aid to defense planning, the development of skills needed . One heavy icebreaker for the Great Lakes means something is not in balance .And the way to put things in balance is easy to figure out – build as many new icebreakers as needed. It would be the right, responsible thing to do . Good article James it is appreciated ! P.S. An idea about stimulating interest in the matter of shipbuilding — some sort of incentive for developing ship design skills with people who may have some ability with the knowledge of mathematics and physics necessary to contribute to the art ,the science of ship design .It is always good to get recognition for good work done. This shortage of icebreakers could be an opportunity to have skilled people involved in projects that will benefit the Great Lakes area in many ways.
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What do ice breakers do during the fall, summer and spring? These vessels are obviously needed but they need to be capable of doing more than one single very important mission. Maybe we need to put our hi-tec folks to work finding an alternative method of breaking up large pieces of ice quickly, efficiently and safely to keep our ports and waterways open. I realize breaking up ice jams isn’t as glamours as sending people to Mars but surely we can use some of that funding and talent to find a solution to this problem that has existed for decades. Over the last few years I’ve noticed we tend to spend billions and trillions of dollars on useless adventures while ignoring important American problems that should have been taken care of long ago. America first has never been one of our strong points… And by the way, there’s a levee that holds the Mississippi River from flooding that has a weak spot that is wearing thin. Everyone knows about it but no one is doing anything about it. They don’t belong to the Army anymore, local and state government don’t want to spend money to fix it and it a low priority for grant money from the feds. When the river floods and it will, it’ll break through that weak spot. It’ll be yet another natural disaster that will cost billions that could have been avoided. And we’ll still be trying to go to Mars….
Given the situation America should two Additional lce Breakers, or what ever it takes to guarantee that our commerce and security will not be threaten!
Why is it, do you think, a country as large, with water everywhere, has NO DAMNED icebreakers!? Did they USN not mention them? Bidness people? People in USA’s orbit, surrounded by water/ice? WHY TF is this a quandary all of a sudden!? I wish Congre$$ would stop pi$$ing in each other’s pockets, and do their jobs! Alas…
Nothing quite like the Godless demoncRATic propagandized press Hoax of weather warming…
Can we produce more or reuse older ships
soooo why dosen,t canda have ice breakers ?
Without more information, this is one of those times where everyone waits for what is sorely needed until the government can appropriate funds to provide it. If it needed so badly by such a large part of the country, then instead of waiting for someone else to pay for what is needed, all the affected businesses should get together and fund an icebreaker themselves, and get it done. I see this often. Instead of getting to work raising the funds for purposes either desired or needed, the effort goes into obtaining public funds, which may either take a long time or never to obtain. In the case of special interests, those joined in the special interest should pay for it. Working for public funds, if obtained, forces many people to pay for what they have no interest in, or are actually against.
I am quite sure funding for needed icebreaker ships would not have been cut if the legislation didn’t have some not mentioned “extras” attached to it. Our current Congress members are quite fond of adding lit bits of unnecessary “extra” to every bit of legislation and that’s why it takes them so long to actually produce legislation bills of any kind.
kind of a “years” old story. After Trump’s promise of 40 ‘big’ icebreakers, Coast Guard says it’ll take eight or nine for polar opsWhile the Coast Guard has its eye on a smaller number of “big” icebreakers for high north operations, the service said it’s looking to “replace, modernize and grow” its entire fleet, including many smaller vessels.
By Lee Ferran on April 08, 2025 11:06 am
Was replaced with a new ice breaker by the same name in 2006. Guess they ran out of naming mideas.
The Mackinaw was decommissioned in 2006
NOPE, no needed ice breaker. We have to defend Israel from all those swollen bellied Palestinian Children because………..well, because Israel owns this nation.