Shipping Thrived After Trump Waived the Jones Act (Joe Lancaster | 7.6.2026, reason)
Since the waiver has been in effect, America’s shipping lanes have thrived—providing further evidence that we should scrap the Jones Act altogether.
“More than 31 million barrels of fuel and chemicals were shuttled between U.S. ports by foreign vessels” in 90 days, Alana Pipe and Ryan Dezember write at The Wall Street Journal. “More than 70% of these shipments originated on the Gulf Coast, home to more than half of U.S. refining capacity and numerous petrochemical facilities and fuel-export docks.”
“The most popular destination has been California, which depends on Persian Gulf imports and has the highest gasoline prices in the country,” they add. “Gasoline has been shipped to California from refineries in Texas and Louisiana and Washington.”
Colin Grabow, associate director of the Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, has observed something similar. “Long-dormant U.S. energy supply chains have come to life,” he wrote in The Washington Post. “Ships transported jet fuel from America’s East Coast to the West Coast for the first time in nearly two decades. Bulk propane shipments reached Puerto Rico from Texas and Pennsylvania for the first time ever. Hawaii bought gasoline from Texas, and Alaska imported jet fuel from Louisiana. Ohio shipped fuel across the Great Lakes to Wisconsin.”
This is wonderful news, but it should come as no surprise that a piece of protectionist legislation stands in the way of progress.
…of the free movement of goods and people.