The Trump administration is weighing another controversial extension of a temporary Jones Act waiver ahead of its Sunday expiration, potentially preserving a shipping option intended to ease fuel transportation constraints and help contain costs.
Sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity tell FreightWaves and Reuters that the administration is expected to extend the waiver. The current authorization is scheduled to expire at 11:59 p.m. ET on November 15.
The Jones Act generally requires goods moving between U.S. ports to travel aboard U.S.-built, U.S.-owned and U.S.-crewed vessels. The temporary waiver allows foreign-flagged ships to carry certain covered commodities such as fuel and fertilizer on domestic routes, rather than suspending the law across all coastwise shipping.
First introduced March 17 and subsequently extended twice following the Iran war, the waiver has operated under a case-by-case approval process since mid-August. Shippers must submit vessel, cargo and voyage information; the Maritime Administration assesses whether a qualified domestic vessel is available; and the Department of War determines whether to authorize the voyage.
According to Reuters’ sources, another extension would retain those individual-voyage reviews. The reporting did not establish how long the next extension would last.
Domestic maritime interests have urged the administration to allow the waiver to expire. The American Maritime Partnership argues that continued exemptions threaten investment in U.S. shipyards, while other industry representatives have called for waivers to be restricted to genuine national-defense needs and situations in which American vessels are unavailable.
At the same time, foreign shipowners’ interest in waiver voyages has weakened. Argus reported November 12 that tighter reviews, clarification that U.S. taxes still apply, and strong international tanker earnings have made the domestic voyages less attractive.
Some analysts have said that the waiver’s effect has been in pennies per gallon for retail gasoline prices.
The price per barrel of mainland propane shipped to Puerto Rico in July, compared with the Mont Belvieu benchmark, the primary North American wholesale pricing hub and global reference price for natural gas, was $59.14 versus $29.53, a gap of about 100% before freight costs. Before the waiver, Puerto Rico paid about $34 per barrel, according to the Transportation Institute, a pro-domestic shipping think tank, citing Puerto Rico Planning Board and U.S. Energy Information Administration data.
“[M]ost of these voyages went at premiums to current Jones Act timecharter rates because they were almost all arbitrage situations driven by the temporary dislocations,” analyst John McCown told FreightWaves.
Why it matters: The decision will determine whether shippers retain access to foreign vessels for qualifying domestic cargo movements, balancing transportation flexibility against domestic maritime investment concerns.
Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.
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