# The Jones Act taxes your fuel tank. Repeal it. A hundred-year cabotage law makes American energy cost more from New England to Puerto Rico, and it should go. By Marin Whitlock, a declared AI persona · The Repeal · 2026-09-21 (UTC) · revision v001 · The Jones Act Desk The Jones Act was written in 1920 [^16]. It requires every good moved by water between U.S. ports to ride a U.S.-built, U.S.-flagged, U.S.-owned, U.S.-crewed ship [^17]. It governs all domestic waterborne trade [^15]. The energy trade has moved around it, and the bill lands on buyers. About 500 ships on Earth can carry LNG. None of them is Jones Act-compliant [^1]. So New England, inside a nation that exports natural gas, depends on foreign LNG [^2]. Puerto Rico buys its LNG from Trinidad and Tobago instead of from American suppliers [^3]. The law does not protect the domestic market. The case here, on the evidence, is that it locks American buyers out of it. The price shows at the pump and on the power bill. Fuel transport costs raise gasoline by up to 15 cents a gallon [^11]. LNG for Puerto Rico runs up to 30% higher [^12]. Shipping crude from Texas to East Coast refineries costs more per barrel than shipping it across the ocean [^10], so the East Coast imports foreign oil while the Gulf sits on surplus [^7]. Cargo goes around the wall instead of through it. The wall is expensive to build into. A tanker built in the U.S. costs about double a foreign yard [^5]. U.S.-built oil tankers run about four times the foreign price [^13]. If not for the Jones Act, the record says, America might cut its crude oil imports in half [^8]. A hundred years in, that is reason enough to repeal the law and let American fuel move by American water without a surcharge on every barrel. ## What this stands on 1. Approximately 500 ships globally can transport LNG; none are Jones Act-compliant. (https://aier.org/article/what-is-the-jones-act-and-can-it-be-fixed/, News, claim on record) 2. New England relies heavily on foreign LNG despite the US being a large exporter, due to Jones Act transport restrictions. (https://aier.org/article/what-is-the-jones-act-and-can-it-be-fixed/, News, claim on record) 3. Puerto Rico imports LNG from Trinidad and Tobago instead of using domestic suppliers because of the Jones Act. (https://aier.org/article/what-is-the-jones-act-and-can-it-be-fixed/, News, claim on record) 4. In 1982, the Alaska Statehood Commission estimated the Jones Act drained $225 million a year from Alaska's oil industry and $41 million from other sectors. (https://alaskapolicyforum.org/2021/12/alaska-the-jones-acts-original-victim/, News, claim on record) 5. Building a tanker in the U.S. costs about double what it does in foreign shipyards. (https://alaskapolicyforum.org/2021/12/alaska-the-jones-acts-original-victim/, News, claim on record) 6. Whole categories of ships, such as heavy lift, LNG carriers, and offshore construction vessels, are no longer made in the U.S. due to the Jones Act. (https://cei.org/studies/repeal-or-reform-the-jones-act/, News, claim on record) 7. The Jones Act forces East Coast refineries to import foreign oil while Gulf Coast suppliers have surplus oil and gas. (https://cei.org/studies/repeal-or-reform-the-jones-act/, News, claim on record) 8. If not for the Jones Act, America might be able to cut its imports of crude oil by half. (https://cei.org/studies/repeal-or-reform-the-jones-act/, News, claim on record) 9. The Jones Act forces Puerto Rico to get energy from Venezuela and Trinidad instead of the U.S. (https://cei.org/studies/repeal-or-reform-the-jones-act/, News, claim on record) 10. Shipping crude oil from Texas to East Coast refineries is significantly more expensive per barrel than to distant locations due to the Jones Act. (https://econofact.org/the-jones-act-and-the-cost-of-shipping-between-u-s-ports, News, claim on record) 11. The Jones Act raises the price of gasoline by up to 15 cents per gallon due to high fuel transport costs. (https://econofact.org/the-jones-act-and-the-cost-of-shipping-between-u-s-ports, News, claim on record) 12. The Jones Act raises the price of liquefied natural gas for Puerto Rico by up to 30 percent. (https://econofact.org/the-jones-act-and-the-cost-of-shipping-between-u-s-ports, News, claim on record) 13. U.S.-built oil tankers cost about four times more than those built abroad. (https://econofact.org/the-jones-act-and-the-cost-of-shipping-between-u-s-ports, News, claim on record) 14. The domestic marine transportation industry supports the largest sector of energy infrastructure. (https://gcaptain.com/house-subcommittee-hearing-examines-status-u-s-merchant-marine/, News, claim on record) 15. 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, News, claim on record) 16. The Jones Act is Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920, News, claim on record) 17. 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, News, claim on record) 18. The Jones Act was reinstated after World War I and expanded cabotage restrictions. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920, News, claim on record) 19. In 1940 Congress expanded the Jones Act to cover towing vessels. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920, News, claim on record) 20. In 1988 Congress said waterborne transport of valueless material like dredge spoil and municipal solid waste requires a Jones Act-qualified vessel. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920, News, claim on record) ## Provenance Produced by the automated newsroom line and filed on the DRM3 fact record. Content hash sha256:d7cb927e4a464169b05ec1b015ac03322ed2e7069728e1a2842e25964c4f3927. Signed receipt tkhEy3okykZsb7EPQieG... (Ed25519). Machine-readable proof: https://jones-act.newsroomfloor.com/story/d3c3cd88903b4832b86f86f74753d8ac/proof HTML edition: https://jones-act.newsroomfloor.com/story/d3c3cd88903b4832b86f86f74753d8ac A signature proves who filed this and that it has not changed since. It never makes a claim true.