Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Ed Case (Hawai‘i – District 1)
(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Representative Ed Case (Hawai‘i-First) asked President Trump to grant another 60-day extension of the current waiver of the Jones Act, citing continued global shipping disruptions, constrained fuel supply chains and rising gasoline and energy costs in Hawai‘i, along with implications for U.S. military readiness in the Indo-Pacific. In April, Case called on the President to grant the initial extension that is set to expire on August 15.
In his latest letter to the President, Case again urged that: “The waiver should be extended now rather than on current expiration because contracts for the acquisition and shipping of fossil fuel products to U.S. ports are signed well in advance of shipping and delivery and failure to provide clarity on that timeframe will seriously disrupt shipping options and prices with wide ranging effects.
“The waiver is operating nationally to mitigate the effects of market disruption on energy availability and pricing nationally. But the need for the waiver is especially acute in Hawai‘i and other noncontiguous jurisdictions which are largely reliant on external fossil fuel-based products for energy, agriculture, transportation, and other key needs, and where the Jones Act, even in a non-disrupted world, imposes unique severe constraints on the delivery of energy supplies and related pricing.”
Case continued: “As I explained before when asking you to extend the waiver earlier this year, Hawai‘i is one of the most isolated parts of our country and depends on shipping for over ninety percent of our goods, including nearly all of our fossil fuel products. Yet the Jones Act severely limits shipping options from the continental U.S. to U.S. Jones Act vessels only, despite the widespread availability of shipping in the international markets. For fossil fuel products specifically, of the thousands of tankers operating globally, only a small fraction are Jones Act-compliant and available for domestic transport, and virtually none are suited for certain bulk commodities such as fertilizer. As a result, even though the United States is a net energy exporter, Hawai‘i typically relies on foreign imports because Jones Act shipping is far more expensive and less dependable that international shipping.”
The Jones Act, a century-old federal maritime law, mandates that all cargo shipped between U.S. ports be transported on U.S.-flagged vessels, excluding most ships operating in global trade that are flagged internationally. With fewer than 100 oceangoing Jones Act vessels nationwide, limited domestic capacity faces no international competition, contributing to higher shipping costs.
The constraints in oil shipping are even more stark: of the nearly 7,500 oil tankers operating worldwide, only 54 are Jones Act-compliant and eligible to move fossil fuel products from the Continent to Hawai‘i, which remains heavily dependent on imported fossil fuel products for energy. As a result, Hawai‘i typically must source most of its essential resources from foreign markets, where shipping is far cheaper.
Case also highlighted to the President the extensive military presence in Hawai‘i, which is largely dependent on the same sources of energy, fuel and other fossil fuel products as the civilian population. He said: “The military in Hawai‘i also depends on this same fuel network. Hawai‘i is the Indo-Pacific home to every service – the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Space Force – along with a significant presence of our nation’s intelligence community.
“It is our nation’s Indo-Pacific headquarters, hosting U.S. Pacific Command, U.S. Pacific Fleet, Pacific Air Forces, U.S. Army Pacific, Marine Corps Forces Pacific, Special Operations Command Pacific, Space Force Indo-Pacific and the National Security Agency Hawai‘i. It also has many key military installations including Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i, Schofield Barracks, Fort Shafter, the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Pōhakuloa Training Area and various other locations. These installations support key operating forces based in Hawai‘i, including nuclear attack submarines, surface combatants, an Army infantry division, F-22s, MV-22s, C-17s, fuel tankers, Apaches, a Marine Corp regiment and approximately 60,000 Department of Defense (DoD) personnel plus families. Both these services and their active duty and civilian personnel and families are all being impacted by substantially higher fossil fuel-related costs.
“The conditions that justified the initial request, including global tanker dislocation, severely constrained availability of U.S.-flagged vessels and disruptions associated with instability in and around the Strait of Hormuz, continue to affect fuel logistics. These ongoing challenges underscore the importance of maintaining maximum flexibility in maritime transport to ensure both civilian and military fuel needs are met.”
In the current 119th Congress, Case again introduced legislation to reform the Jones Act and open up Hawai‘i – Continent shipping to international competition.
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