Opinion | How the Jones Act Distorts Oil Markets - The Wall Street Journal
How the Jones Act Distorts Oil Markets - WSJ
Dec. 17, 2023 5:17 pm ET
One small piece of legislation could trim the East Coast’s fuel bill by $802 million a year, according to a new study, while cutting the region’s imports of gasoline by 36% and of jet fuel by 96%. That might sound like a large effect, but it’s only a fraction of the economic gains that could be had from repealing the protectionist Jones Act.
This 1920 law, formally called the Merchant Marine Act, says that ships carrying cargo between any U.S. points must be primarily built, owned and crewed by Americans. Although it’s billed as an America First policy, it raises the costs for coastal shipping of domestic products, which often gives imports an edge. The Jones Act makes news whenever a tanker full of Russian natural gas docks in Boston or Puerto Rico, but the same effect is hidden everywhere.
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