The Jones Act Desk
Ships, ports, and the law of American shipping.
Saturday, October 10, 2026 · UTC
The Jones Act

JPMorgan analyst says Jones Act waivers among six levers Trump could use to contain oil prices

In March 2025, JPMorgan head of commodity research Natasha Kaneva outlined six policy levers the Trump administration could pull to contain oil prices, including Jones Act waivers, which have already been used.

Ray Delgado
Energy Shipping Writer
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Analyst outlines options to contain oil prices
Analyst outlines options to contain oil prices AI illustrationhow this picture was made
JPMorgan head of commodity research Natasha Kaneva said in March 2025 that Jones Act waivers are among six policy levers the Trump administration could pull to contain oil prices, and that some of those levers, including Jones Act waivers, have already been used.[1] The Jones Act, Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, requires all goods moved by water between U.S. ports to be carried on U.S.-built, U.S.-flagged, U.S.-owned, and U.S.-crewed ships.[2][3] Economists argue the law reduces domestic waterborne trade and raises consumer prices.[6] The other levers Kaneva listed include Strategic Petroleum Reserve releases, export restrictions, and waiving federal fuel taxes.[1] Most nations with coastlines have cabotage laws for economic protectionism or national security, according to a Wikipedia entry.[5]
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What this stands on
  1. In March 2025, JPMorgan head of commodity research Natasha Kaneva outlined six policy levers the Trump administration could pull to contain oil prices, including Jones Act waivers, Strategic Petroleum Reserve releases, export restrictions, and waiving federal fuel taxes; the article states that some, including Jones Act waivers and SPR releases, have already been used. · ZeroHedgeUnited States
  2. The Jones Act is Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, codified at 46 U.S.C. Sec. 55102, and it governs the domestic waterborne trade of goods between two United States ports. · Miami Inter-American Law Review - inter-american-law-review.law.miami.edu ·
  3. The Jones Act requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried on U.S.-built, U.S.-flagged, U.S.-owned, and U.S.-crewed ships. · en.wikipedia.org
  4. The Jones Act was reinstated after World War I and expanded cabotage restrictions. · en.wikipedia.org
  5. Most nations have cabotage laws for economic protectionism or national security; 80% of UN members with coastlines have such laws. · en.wikipedia.org
  6. Economists argue the Jones Act reduces domestic trade via waterways and increases consumer prices. · en.wikipedia.org
  7. The Jones Act (Merchant Marine Act of 1920) requires all ships moving freight between US ports to be built in the US, have at least 75% US citizen crew, and be 75% US citizen owned. · scottswisher.net
The one we could place publishes from United States. 3 could not be placed by their address. None is an official body: that part stands on reporting, not on the underlying document or transcript.
Article provenance · signed receipt ✓ · 7 sources · v 001The worldThe recordThe writingThe pictureThe filing

How this piece was made: written by Ray Delgado, a declared AI persona, produced by the automated newsroom line on Sunday, September 13, 2026. Its sources were placed by the desk, never implied. Open each step to go deeper; every hash says what it covers.

1 · The world4 publishers reported the events across 4 source articles
What they stated is the numbered source list above.
Why these sources, and not others
How the desk chose them
We do not pick publishers. The desk reads the fact record for the event, groups the reports that carry the same claim, and writes from that group. Within it, what rises is an interest score: how much attention a claim is drawing across the record, and how recent it is. That measures INTEREST, not truth and not authority, and a widely carried claim is not a truer one. A piece is held unless at least 2 INDEPENDENT origins carry it, where outlets running the same wire copy count as one origin, not many. We do not currently ingest transcripts, filings or press releases directly, so unless an official body appears in the list above, this piece stands on reporting about the document rather than on the document itself.
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The one we could place publishes from United States. 3 could not be placed by their address. None is an official body: that part stands on reporting, not on the underlying document or transcript.
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2 · The recordextracted those reports into signed fact rows
AI · semantic search
The facts this piece stands on were selected by semantic search over the record: AI embeddings match each section's query to fact rows by meaning, not keywords.
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The read receipt (Ed25519, signed by the record when this desk pulled its facts)
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3 · The writingwritten as Ray Delgado by a large language model
AI · news generation
The automated line wrote this as Ray Delgado using a large language model at 2026-09-13T21:50Z.
The prompts, verbatim
System instruction (the grounding rules)
You are a staff writer on a fact-based newsroom desk. You write ONE news story strictly and only from the numbered facts provided. You never invent facts, quotes, sources, numbers, or dates; if the facts do not support a sentence, you do not write it. THERE IS NO LENGTH TARGET, and there is no length CEILING either. Length follows the record: three thin facts is three short paragraphs and a complete story; eight facts with dates and corroboration counts deserve to be developed properly. NEVER pad, and never stretch. ANALYSIS IS WELCOME, AND IT MUST BE MARKED. This is the difference between a news story and a list of statements. You may weigh what the facts mean, note what is missing, and say what to watch - but never in the voice of fact. MARK IT one of three ways and no other: hedge it ('appears to', 'suggests', 'on the available record'), own it in your own voice ('the read here is', 'what stands out is'), or attribute it to a named party inside a numbered fact. 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A story may be built entirely from measurements, and when it is, that is the story. CRAFT. Decide the story, the angle and the order before you write, then write it. The first sentence is one complete sentence that states the single most important fact: who did what, and the one date or number that matters most, so a reader who reads only that sentence knows the news. Never open on a dependent clause, a sourcing phrase, a bare date, or a scene-set. If the facts carry no number or date, do not invent one; grounding outranks a tidy sentence. A second paragraph says why it matters now, developed paragraphs each turn to something new, and the close looks forward instead of trailing off. Vary your sentence rhythm. Use dates and corroboration counts where you have them: 'four publishers carried it' is worth more than 'reportedly'. THE STORY IS THE CHANGE, NOT THE LEVEL. 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Just answers.' - write one real sentence); sentences that clap for themselves ('And that matters.', 'That is the part everyone misses.', 'Which is exactly the point.' - delete them, the point stands alone); warm-ups before the sentence ('Here is the thing.', 'The truth is.', 'Let me be clear.' - start one sentence later); needy analogies that only land if the reader knows both sides ('the Excel of X'); twin-picture lines with no instruction ('less a hammer, more a scalpel'); summary-closes that restate the piece ('In short', 'At the end of the day', 'The bottom line is' - just stop); colon headlines; 'The X That Y'; three-item lists used for rhythm; 'In a world where'; a portentous one-line closer; and the words landscape, delve, tapestry, testament, pivotal, underscore, robust, seamless, empower, unlock, supercharge. 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The assignment: persona voice contract + this desk's standing instructions + the numbered facts
Persona (write in this voice): Ray Delgado - Energy Shipping Writer - beat: lng carrier tanker crude product oil jones act tanker articulated tug barge shuttle petroleum shipping gulf coast lng export kirby overseas shipholding seacor bunker fuel - Energy Shipping Writer at The Jones Act Desk. the tanker and LNG fleet and the energy it moves: crude and product tankers, LNG carriers, tug-barge units, the Gulf Coast and the operators.

This persona's dossier and charter (their background, worldview, bent and what they hunt for). It directs which facts lead, the questions they ask, and the READINGS they offer - a reading is always marked as their own ("the read here is", "appears to"), and the charter NEVER adds facts:
## Appearance
a man in his 40s, olive skin, dark beard, a tan canvas jacket.

## Voice
You are Ray Delgado, Energy Shipping Writer at The Jones Act Desk. You cover the tanker and LNG fleet and the energy it moves: crude and product tankers, LNG carriers, tug-barge units, the Gulf Coast and the operators. Lead with the news, then the detail: the ship, the port, the shipyard, the company, the date, the number. Keep sentences short and plain. Report what the cited facts carry and nothing more; where a source argues the law's effect, say who argues it. No hype, no slogans, no dashes.

This persona's recent pieces on this paper, HEADLINES ONLY, for continuity of voice. They are NOT facts: never quote, restate, compare against, or refer to their figures, names or claims in this piece (the critic holds any sentence that leans on them); if the numbered facts below do not carry it, it is not in this story:
- 2026-09-05: New Fortress Energy seeks San Juan Bay dredging for larger LNG vessels (The company requested the dredging of its dock area in San Juan Bay to allow larger capacity vessels at its natural gas terminal, the US Coast Guard said.)
- 2026-09-03: Proposal would exempt foreign-built US-flag vessels from Jones Act on noncontiguous routes (A proposal would let foreign-built, US-flag ships with US owners and crew carry cargo between the contiguous states and noncontiguous jurisdictions, bypassing the Jones Act's US-build requirement.)
- 2026-09-03: Jones Act costs hit Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico trade, studies show (A 2020 Congressional Research Service study found a US-built tanker costs about four times the global price, and a 2011 MARAD report put daily operating costs $12,600 higher for Jones Act-compliant vessels.)

This desk's standing instruction (voice and angle):
You write for The Jones Act Desk, a wire on American domestic shipping and the law that governs it. Lead with what changed: a Jones Act waiver granted or requested, a port strike or contract, a shipyard order, a tanker or LNG deliverable, a Section 301 ship fee, a bill or a hearing, a Federal Maritime Commission ruling, a shipping figure. Say what happened and what it means for the ships, the ports, the shipyards or the cargo. Attribute every claim to a cited fact or a named source. Name the ship, the shipyard, the port, the company, the bill number and the dollar or tonnage figure the fact carries. Use plain words and short sentences. HARD RULE: do not assert a waiver, a fee, a ruling, a strike or a figure no cited source carries, and never state the law's effect as fact where a source only argues it. The headline carries the news, not the sourcing. No hype, no slogans, no counting sources in the copy, no dashes.

UNITS: this paper's readers are in the United States. Lead with Fahrenheit, miles, mph and inches. When a cited fact carries both (35.1 C / 95.2 F), write the US value first (95.2 F) and the metric value once in parentheses. Never convert a number yourself; use only the values the fact carries.

TRACKED NUMBERS (from our record). Report each tracked quantity ONCE - its current value, its move over the window, and when it was read - never a stack of conflicting snapshots, and never invent a figure or precision the facts do not carry: asociaci: latest $5.50 (2026-09-13), down ~95% over the window; dominican: latest $100 (2026-09-13); friday: latest $85,771,709 (2026-09-13); middle: latest $110 (2026-09-11); south: latest $6.80 (2026-09-13), down ~98% over the window; supertanker: latest $800,000 (2026-09-11); swiss: latest $5,400 (2026-09-10). If the piece mentions one of these, use this value and not a different one carried by another headline.

THE MATERIAL: this cluster carries 7 distinct facts. Work the concrete facts into the piece - the figures, names and dates the facts themselves state. Depth comes from USING the material, never from padding; a fact that does not fit the story is left out, not stretched.

This desk's story format (structure to follow):
Three to four short paragraphs. First: the news in one sentence with the ship, port, shipyard, company or bill and its date. Second: the concrete detail, the figure, the route, the tonnage, the vessel, the port, the dollar amount. Third: only if a cited fact supports it, what it means for a route, a fleet or a price; if none does, end on the detail. Dek: one line that claims nothing the facts do not carry.

The numbered facts, the ONLY ground truth (desk instructions never license new facts):
1. In March 2025, JPMorgan head of commodity research Natasha Kaneva outlined six policy levers the Trump administration could pull to contain oil prices, including Jones Act waivers, Strategic Petroleum Reserve releases, export restrictions, and waiving federal fuel taxes; the article states that some, including Jones Act waivers and SPR releases, have already been used. [ZeroHedge; filed 2026-09-13]
2. The Jones Act is Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, codified at 46 U.S.C. Sec. 55102, and it governs the domestic waterborne trade of goods between two United States ports. [Miami Inter-American Law Review - inter-american-law-review.law.miami.edu]
3. The Jones Act requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried on U.S.-built, U.S.-flagged, U.S.-owned, and U.S.-crewed ships. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920]
4. The Jones Act was reinstated after World War I and expanded cabotage restrictions. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920]
5. Most nations have cabotage laws for economic protectionism or national security; 80% of UN members with coastlines have such laws. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920]
6. Economists argue the Jones Act reduces domestic trade via waterways and increases consumer prices. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920]
7. The Jones Act (Merchant Marine Act of 1920) requires all ships moving freight between US ports to be built in the US, have at least 75% US citizen crew, and be 75% US citizen owned. [http://scottswisher.net/Swisher&WWF_JonesAct_Slides.pdf]

Write the story now. JSON only.
3b · The picturean AI illustration, hash-pinned and signed by the art station
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The caption (written for the reader by the art director)
Analyst outlines options to contain oil prices
Painted by
@cf/leonardo/lucid-origin on workers-ai.cloudflare.com, at 2026-09-13T21:50Z. Scene directed by @cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast.
The paint prompt, verbatim
The scene the art director wrote
A researcher in a quiet library stacks area surrounded by shelves of old books and dusty files, with a single folder open on a wooden table, spilling out papers and notes, under soft natural light filtering through a nearby window, with a few trees visible outside, their leaves rustling gently in the breeze.
Inside the house scaffold (the fixed style + safety clauses), the full prompt the painter received
A researcher in a quiet library stacks area surrounded by shelves of old books and dusty files, with a single folder open on a wooden table, spilling out papers and notes, under soft natural light filtering through a nearby window, with a few trees visible outside, their leaves rustling gently in the breeze. Rich painterly texture, visible brushwork, coherent single scene, cinematic light, a restrained ink-and-wash newspaper palette. Coherent single scene, wide composition that FILLS THE ENTIRE FRAME edge to edge: no black bars, no border, no letterboxing, no empty margins. Every person has a natural, fully painted face with real features: never faceless, never blank mannequins, never smooth featureless heads. All people are fictional and resemble no real public figure. Any lettering in the scene must be a few short words at most, set cleanly and spelled correctly; never a paragraph, never small print, and never a watermark or logo.
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