President Donald Trump granted a 90-day extension to a shipping waiver that makes it easier to move oil, fuel and fertilizer around the United States, the White House said on Friday, the latest effort to curb rising energy costs linked to the war with Iran.
The move reflects a broader push by the White House to dampen politically sensitive fuel price spikes ahead of November’s midterm elections, where affordability is expected to be a defining issue for voters. Recent polling shows Trump and Republicans losing ground on the economy — once a core political strength — with approval of his economic handling falling sharply and rising gasoline prices weighing heavily on public sentiment.
The decision adds roughly three months to the existing waiver that was set to expire on May 17, enabling foreign-flagged vessels to move commodities between U.S. ports through mid-August.
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers confirmed on Friday that Trump had issued the extension.
"This waiver extension provides both certainty and stability for the U.S. and global economies," Rogers said.
The administration is taking the step of extending the waiver three weeks before its expiration to allow ample time for the maritime industry to ensure sufficient vessels are available to keep moving applicable goods to where they are needed, a White House official said.
The Jones Act has long been a flashpoint between competing economic and national security priorities. Supporters, including U.S. shipbuilders, maritime unions and some lawmakers, argue the law is critical to maintaining a domestic shipping industry and merchant marine that can support military logistics and national security.
But critics — including energy producers, refiners and agricultural groups — say the requirement to use U.S.-built and -crewed vessels sharply raises shipping costs and limits capacity, particularly during disruptions, driving up prices for fuel and other goods.
“This extension of an already historically long and ineffective Jones Act waiver is not only an affront to hundreds of thousands of hardworking Americans who put this country first every single day, it sabotages President Trump’s agenda to restore American maritime dominance,” said Jennifer Carpenter, president of the American Maritime Partnership.
The action is one of several steps Trump has taken to blunt elevated fuel prices and address growing supply concerns, as the U.S.- and Israeli-led war against Iran has triggered a global energy shock.
Trump has said crude and gasoline prices are likely to fall once the Iran conflict subsides, but analysts caution that costs could remain elevated even after hostilities end, as supply disruptions, higher shipping costs and a lingering geopolitical risk premium continue to ripple through global energy markets.
REQUESTED BY HAWAI’I
On April 22, U.S. Representative Ed Case (Hawai‘i-First) asked Trump to extend the current 60-day 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.
The waiver allows international shipping to transit critical oil, fuel and other fossil fuel-based products from the continental U.S., where supplies are available, to Hawai‘i. Case says there are not enough qualifying ships (built and flagged in the U.S.) to deliver these products to Hawai‘i from the Continental U.S. even in stable times and especially not in times of international disruption.
With fewer than 100 oceangoing Jones Act vessels nationwide, limited domestic capacity faces no international competition, contributing to higher shipping costs. 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.
“Epic Fury has further disrupted this already fragile system. International suppliers that Hawai‘i has historically relied upon are restricting exports, forcing greater dependence on domestic energy sources at precisely the time when Jones Act-compliant vessels are least available. This dual constraint of reduced international supply and insufficient domestic shipping capacity has made the waiver essential to maintaining adequate fuel flows to the state.”
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: “Both these services and their active duty and civilian personnel and families are all being impacted by substantially higher fossil fuel-related costs and will be even more impacted if oil imports to Hawaii are outright unavailable.”
(Reuters and staff)
