Industry Reacts To Jones Act Extension
Confirming the fears of Jones Act supporters, President Donald Trump’s administration announced April 24 that it has extended an initial 60-day waiver of the act for another 90 days.
The extension was announced on X by White House press secretary Taylor Rogers, who said, “New data compiled since the initial waiver was issued revealed that significantly more supply was able to reach U.S. ports faster. This waiver extension provides both certainty and stability for the U.S. and global economies. The Trump administration has taken several actions to mitigate short-term disruptions to the energy markets, and this extension will help ensure vital energy products, industrial materials and agricultural necessities are maintained.”
The White House claimed that the previous waiver allowed more than 40 foreign-flag tankers to increase the availability of transporting goods between U.S. ports by more than 70 percent, according to CBS News, and enabled more than 9 million barrels of U.S. oil to reach domestic ports.
Jennifer Carpenter, president of The American Waterways Operators as well as America’s Maritime Partnership, a coalition of maritime interests supporting the Jones Act, said, “This extension of an already long and ineffective waiver is not only an affront to hundreds of thousands of hardworking Americans who put this country first every single day. It sabotages President Trump’s agenda to restore American maritime dominance. Waiving the Jones Act exports American jobs to foreign carriers, allows them to skirt U.S. laws and exposes the nation to national security threats by opening our maritime borders.”
The Trump administration sent a letter to congressional leaders informing them of the decision. The administration is issuing the waivers and extensions under 46 U.S.C. § 501(a), which authorizes the secretary of Homeland Security to waive Jones Act requirements (codified in 46 U.S.C. § 55102) if deemed necessary in the interest of national defense. The Jones Act restricts shipping between U.S. ports to U.S. flag vessels except under waivers.
Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA-08), ranking member of the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee and co-author of the SHIPS for America Act, said,
“President Trump’s Jones Act waiver is nothing more than a desperate attempt to clean up a crisis of his own making and is another example of him doing the exact opposite of ‘America first.’ Let’s be clear: waiving the Jones Act will do absolutely nothing to lower gas prices.”Foreign flag vessels making use of the waiver are required to report data about voyages no later than 10 days after they are made. The Maritime Administration has posted 12 reports on voyages related to the waiver issued March 17. The April 25 spreadsheet includes reports from vessels flagged in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Liberia, Denmark and the Marshall Islands.
In the aftermath of the military actions against Iran and the intermittent closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a reported 142 tankers diverted from the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean and headed across the southern Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf. Some of those may have been headed to Venezuela or Brazil.
