Trump Extends Jones Act Waiver For Another 90 Days
President Donald Trump extended the Jones Act waiver for another 90 days on Friday, keeping foreign-flagged tankers eligible to move oil and other commodities between U.S. ports as the war with Iran continues to drive up fuel costs.
The extension, confirmed by a White House official who spoke to Reuters, continues what is already the longest waiver in the shipping law's history. Foreign vessels will still need approval for individual voyages due to a restriction introduced in August after earlier blanket exemptions drew opposition from the domestic maritime industry.
The 1920 Jones Act requires cargo moving between American ports to travel on U.S.-built, U.S.-owned and U.S.-crewed vessels. Suspending that act allows for a much larger pool of ships.
Phillips 66 was among the first to take advantage of the original waiver, shipping roughly 300,000 barrels of Bakken crude from Texas to Monroe Energy's Trainer refinery in Pennsylvania aboard the Malta-flagged HTM Warrior in April.
The administration has since tightened the rules. Roughly 300 waivers were granted under the earlier blanket exemptions in March and May, compared with just 48 since the switch to individual approvals in August, according to government figures cited by Reuters.
The White House hopes the additional shipping flexibility will help contain gasoline, diesel and fertilizer prices, although previous exemptions have delivered little relief at the pump.
U.S. gasoline averaged $3.91 per gallon Thursday, compared with $2.98 before the Iran war began. Diesel stood at $6.10, up from $3.76, according to AAA.
Shipping accounts for only a small portion of retail gasoline prices, and critics estimate that relaxing the Jones Act would save consumers mere pennies per gallon.
More than 50 Republican lawmakers urged Trump in June to restore the restrictions, citing American maritime jobs and national security concerns.
As it stands currently, shippers must prove that suitable American vessels are unavailable before getting approval for using foreign ships. The latest extension keeps that approval process intact.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
White House Extends Jones Act Waiver Into 2027
On Friday, President Donald Trump decided to extend the long-running waiver of the Jones Act to allow foreign-crewed tankers to keep carrying energy products in U.S. domestic trade, according to Bloomberg. The renewal provides more transport options for U.S. energy traders and petroleum companies - but American domestic shipping interests say that the policy damages the health of the maritime industrial base, while doing little to help consumers with high gas and diesel prices.
The extension takes effect Monday, a White House official told Bloomberg. It will push the waiver period's validity out through at least mid-February, with the possibility of further extensions.
Measured by historical standards, it is an exceptionally broad use of the presidential waiver authority, both in time and in scope. The White House says that foreign-crewed, foreign-owned ships have moved about 90 million barrels of petroleum between U.S. ports since the start of the waiver period. Opponents of the waiver say that because none of the shipments are linked to operational national security needs, as is required by law, the program exceeds the White House's capabilities.
The frequency of shipments has fallen since the latest renewal, as the terms have tightened: the Maritime Administration now must pre-review each shipment to assess whether Jones Act-qualified vessels are available before a foreign-flagged ship may carry out the voyage. That procedural step remains in place for this renewal cycle, and no additional restrictions have been added, according to Bloomberg.
"We urge the administration to continue scrutinizing all waiver requests under the case-by-case process to ensure that any approved waivers meet the statutory standard of military necessity and are not used to displace American vessels and American workers for routine commercial moves," said the American Maritime Partnership in a statement. "As both the Administration and Congress have made clear, a Jones Act waiver does not relieve users of the responsibility to comply with applicable U.S. laws, including tax, immigration and employment standards."
"The offshore industry has seen this happen before. Every exception gets sold as temporary, and every one leaves fewer opportunities for American vessels and mariners,” added Aaron Smith, President and CEO of the Offshore Marine Service Association (OMSA). “What started as a 60-day measure is now heading into its ninth month, and it still hasn't delivered. Every extension tells investors the market for American vessels can disappear on the whim of a bureaucrat, and that investment goes overseas."
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