Page 21: of Marine News Magazine (November 2026)

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Insider Insights

AWO global price of oil (which rises when key transit points like American companies at risk today by opening domestic the Strait of Hormuz are choked off), re? ning costs, and voyages to foreign operators unburdened by compliance taxes, while the domestic marine transport of fuel accounts with U.S. laws, it also threatens the long-term strength and for less than a penny a gallon. viability of America’s maritime industrial base. American

The Jones Act waiver has not provided relief from the vessel owners and shipyards cannot prudently invest capital problems it was pitched as solving. What it has provided in expanding their ? eets and facilities if Jones Act waivers is a talking point for politicians eager to tell the American become a workaround norm for routine commerce rather public in a volatile election year that they left no stone than the rare, emergency exception contemplated by law. unturned, no lever unpulled, in trying to address the chal- And the next generation of American mariners and ship- lenge of rising energy costs, even if this particular “solu- yard workers critical to our nation’s economy and security tion” hasn’t made a dent. will not invest their time and talent in pursuing maritime

The price of this talking point is dangerously high. careers if their jobs can be outsourced to foreign workers.

The political Jones Act waiver has enabled foreign vessels A strong and resilient American maritime industry has with foreign crews, answerable to foreign governments, to been vital to America’s independence and global leadership engage in U.S. domestic commerce, something American for the past 250 years. We shouldn’t sacri? ce that legacy law does not allow for domestic trucking, rail transport, for a political talking point or a penny or less at the gas or air travel. Displacing American vessels and mariners on pump. It’s time to end the political Jones Act waiver and our domestic waterways creates dependence on foreign put Americans, and America’s maritime future, ? rst. operators to keep our nation’s supply chain moving, while exacerbating na- tional security risks as even Chinese and Russian vessels and crews take advantage of the opportunity to move our domestic cargo.

And in stark contrast to President

Trump’s pledge to restore American maritime dominance, the waiver is doing serious harm to the American maritime industry.

Under the waiver, foreign carriers are not only displacing American ves- sels and mariners on domestic routes, but – as Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA),

Ranking Member on the House Coast

Guard and Maritime Transportation

Subcommittee has observed – are do- ing so seemingly without oversight to ensure their compliance with U.S. tax, labor, safety, security, and envi- ronmental laws. This disparity creates a major comparative disadvantage for

American companies playing by the rules and following U.S. law.

While the Jones Act waiver puts www.marinelink.com MN 21|