Colin Grabow
Since the Trump administration waived the Jones Act on March 17 for energy products, fertilizer, and related inputs, the US Maritime Administration has been publishing voyage-level data on every domestic cargo movement that has utilized the 1920 law’s suspension. We’ve turned that data into an interactive infographic that lets readers explore all 45 voyages completed thus far, including the vessels involved, cargo carried, and ports visited.
The map offers a glimpse of what US shipping might look like without the Jones Act. First, it shows that there is latent demand that the existing Jones Act-compliant fleet was not meeting. Americans wanted to move more goods within the US but couldn’t because there weren’t enough qualified vessels. With the Jones Act tanker fleet reportedly fully employed, this is not a case of foreign vessels replacing American ships but rather supplementing them.
It’s all further confirmation that the law has been suppressing intra-US trade. But that’s just from a higher level. Some of the granular data produced by the waiver provides arguably even more noteworthy insights.
The Gulf-to-West Coast Fuel Trade Springs to Life
Perhaps the most striking finding involves fuel movements from PADD 3 — the Gulf Coast refining region — to PADD 5, which encompasses the West Coast, Hawaii, and Alaska. In the waiver’s first 50 days, foreign-flagged tankers transported approximately 1.59 million barrels of non-renewable diesel petroleum products from the Gulf Coast to the West Coast. That’s approximately four times more than in all of last year, when roughly 401,000 barrels moved by water for those same categories. The waiver didn’t create demand for those shipments but simply made visible demand that had long been suppressed.
Notably, there was also a voyage in the other direction, transporting naphtha from California to Texas. For context, the amount of fuel moved by water from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast last year was zero.
Puerto Rico Finally Gets Access to U.S. Propane
In the waiver’s first 52 days, foreign-flagged product tankers completed three deliveries of fuel (ultra-low sulfur diesel and diesel fuel oil) from the US mainland to Puerto Rico. For perspective, such deliveries from 2021–2025 averaged about five per year (and even that figure is likely inflated, as the 2025 spike was almost certainly driven by the New Fortress Energy supply crisis, which forced some of the island’s power plants to switch from LNG to petroleum products).
Arguably more notable than the three product tankers, however, was the arrival of propane in Puerto Rico. Although the United States is one of the world’s leading exporters of propane, shipping bulk quantities to Puerto Rico had previously been impossible, as there are no liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tankers in the Jones Act fleet to transport it. Barred from US propane, Puerto Rico had to turn to more distant sources, such as Chile.
Granted access to the global fleet of such vessels through the waiver, this particular Jones Act blockade on Puerto Rico has effectively been breached. Unfortunately, the self-imposed embargo will resume once the waiver expires.
Additional Evidence from the Waiver Data
The use of LPG tankers under the waiver hasn’t been limited to propane. The waiver data also show that three voyages so far have carried anhydrous ammonia, which is both a fertilizer itself and a key ingredient in making other fertilizers. That’s a boon to American farmers.
California has emerged as the biggest beneficiary of the Jones Act waiver. In addition to eight cargoes transported to the state from the Gulf Coast, there have also been another eight intra-California voyages and five more to California from refineries in the Pacific Northwest. In total, California-related movements account for 21 of the 45 voyages completed so far.
One notable shipment was the transportation of crude oil from the Bakken formation to Pennsylvania via a port in Texas. In an earnings call, Phillips 66 explicitly cited this as an example of using domestic oil to replace imported supply. Which should come as no surprise. In 2017, the CEO of a Jones Act tanker company admitted that if the law didn’t exist, “there probably would be more movements of crude oil from Texas to Philadelphia.” The waiver just made plain what has been obvious all along.
Why Each Voyage Is an Economic Gain
Let’s be clear about what each voyage under the Jones Act waiver represents. With the Jones Act tanker fleet fully employed, the counterfactual for each waiver voyage is not a Jones Act-compliant vessel making the same trip, but either a higher-cost import from abroad or no shipment at all. Without the waiver, needed goods would either have to be less efficiently sourced from abroad or Americans would have to go without.
Importantly, the 45 voyages completed so far may actually understate the latent demand the waiver has exposed. As Chevron spokesman Ross Allen told the Wall Street Journal, “vessel availability and location have limited the relief the Jones Act waiver has been able to provide so far.” In other words, companies would have utilized the waiver even more but couldn’t find enough suitable vessels in the current challenging shipping environment. The 45 voyages are not the sum total of demand but a ceiling imposed by the constraints of this particular window.
Waiver Data Undermines the Case for the Jones Act
If the Jones Act were anything other than a drag on the US economy, the waiver would have gone unused. Instead, in just over 50 days, it has generated 45 voyages spanning more than 30 ports, involving 35 vessels not present in the Jones Act fleet, and carrying over a dozen different cargo types. Unmet demand has been illuminated, and dormant supply chains brought to life. The voyages represent American products reaching American customers that the law had previously made impossible or economically unviable.
And with this waiver covering only energy products and fertilizer, it offers a mere peek into what domestic maritime commerce might look like without the Jones Act in place at all. But what it has exposed is already striking, with every voyage evidence of foregone economic activity. Every LPG tanker calling at a Puerto Rican port is a reminder of what the island has been denied, and every barrel of Gulf Coast fuel reaching the West Coast is a transaction the market wanted but that the law previously prevented.
For an administration committed to “America First” economics, the early results clearly show that the law is not protecting American commerce but blocking it. No wonder the Jones Act’s supporters are so adamant that the waiver go away.