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Jones Act Waiver Tracker

Documenting domestic cargo movements under the
March 17, 2026-August 16, 2026 waiver

On March 17, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security issued the longest and broadest waiver of the Jones Act since at least 1950. This interactive dashboard tracks the substantial economic activity that has emerged since the waiver was issued.

In nonwaiver times, the Jones Act restricts the transportation of cargo between US ports to vessels that are American-built, American-flagged, American-owned, and American-crewed. When the government determines that compliant vessels are unavailable or insufficient to meet national defense needs, it may issue emergency waivers allowing foreign-flagged ships to carry domestic cargo.

The March 17 waiver covers energy commodities and fertilizer inputs across roughly 659 product categories, including crude oil, refined petroleum products, natural gas, coal, ammonia, and fertilizers. The 60-day waiver was initially set to expire on May 17, 2026, and was subsequently extended for an additional 90 days, through August 16, 2026.

Operators utilizing the waiver are required to file voyage reports with the US Maritime Administration (MARAD), which publishes them on its website. The tracker above is built from those reports. Each voyage on the map is a domestic cargo movement that would have been unlawful had the Jones Act’s restrictions not been temporarily waived.

Key Findings

  • The Gulf Coast to West Coast fuel trade springs to life: In the waiver’s first 50 days, foreign-flagged tankers moved approximately 1.59 million barrels of energy products (excluding renewable diesel) from the Gulf Coast to the West Coast, which is roughly four times the volume moved by water on that route in all of 2025. In the waiver’s first 70 days, more gasoline and jet fuel were moved from the Gulf Coast to the West Coast than in the entirety of 2020–2025.
  • Puerto Rico purchases US propane: No liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tankers exist in the Jones Act fleet. As a result, Puerto Rico had been effectively barred from bulk US propane purchases and was forced to import from distant sources. The waiver opened the global LPG fleet to domestic routes, allowing bulk propane to reach Puerto Rico from the US mainland for the first time.
  • Ammonia reaches American farmers: Three voyages have carried anhydrous ammonia — a fertilizer and key precursor to other fertilizers — aboard LPG tankers.
  • Crude reaches Pennsylvania: The waiver’s first 60 days saw four movements of crude oil, both Bakken oil and West Texas Intermediate, from Texas to the East Coast. In 2017, the CEO of a Jones Act tanker company acknowledged that without the law, “there probably would be more movements of crude oil from Texas to Philadelphia.” The waiver has borne that out.
  • Foreign vessels have supplemented, not replaced, the Jones Act fleet: With the Jones Act tanker fleet fully employed, each foreign-flagged voyage represents demand that would otherwise have gone unmet.

Further Reading