Ninety million barrels of fuel and commodities have moved between American ports under foreign-flagged vessels since the White House first suspended Jones Act restrictions in March.
That figure, cited by a White House official speaking to Reuters, underscores just how deeply the waiver has reshaped domestic maritime shipping over the past eight months.
On Friday, President Donald Trump extended the exemption for a further 90 days, keeping the policy alive as the ongoing war with Iran continues to strain U.S. energy markets.
The extension was confirmed just two days before the previous waiver was due to expire, with the administration opting to maintain the existing scope of relief rather than expand or further restrict it.
The waiver now stands as the longest suspension of the Jones Act in more than seven decades, surpassing all previous exemptions granted by prior administrations.
The 1920 law ordinarily mandates that any cargo traveling between American ports be carried aboard vessels that are U.S.-built, U.S.-owned, and U.S.-crewed, a requirement that significantly limits available shipping capacity.
A Cato Institute analysis of government data found that 338 voyages have been completed on foreign vessels since the waiver took effect, covering routes such as Texas crude deliveries to Pennsylvania and propane shipments to Puerto Rico.
Among the early beneficiaries was Phillips 66, which in April shipped roughly 300,000 barrels of Bakken crude from Texas to Monroe Energy’s Trainer refinery in Pennsylvania aboard the Malta-flagged HTM Warrior.
Of the 90 million barrels moved under the waiver, gasoline accounted for 27 million barrels, crude oil for 26 million barrels, and renewable fuels for 6 million barrels, with jet fuel, naphtha, liquefied natural gas, soy oil, and fertilizers also covered.
The administration’s stated rationale centers on relieving fuel and fertilizer price pressures that the war with Iran has intensified, by expanding the pool of available vessels and easing domestic transport bottlenecks.
Critics, however, argue the economic benefit to consumers is marginal, noting that shipping represents only a small fraction of retail gasoline prices and that the actual savings could amount to mere pennies per gallon.
Political resistance has also emerged from within Trump’s own party, with more than 50 Republican lawmakers writing to the president in June urging a return to full Jones Act enforcement, citing threats to American maritime jobs and national security.
The domestic shipbuilding industry, a historically powerful lobby, has long backed the law, and that pressure has traditionally kept past waivers short and narrowly targeted at specific disruptions such as hurricanes or pipeline outages.
In August, the administration did tighten the waiver’s terms, requiring case-by-case government reviews of vessel availability before foreign ships could be deployed on domestic routes.
Whether the 90-day extension proves to be a final chapter or simply the latest renewal will likely depend on how quickly the Iran conflict and its ripple effects on American energy prices evolve.
