The Trump administration plans to waive a century-old maritime law that requires American ships be used to transport goods between US ports as it seeks to blunt surging oil and gasoline prices,…
The Trump administration plans to waive a century-old maritime law that requires American ships be used to transport goods between US ports as it seeks to blunt surging oil and gasoline prices, according to people familiar with the matter.
The 30-day exemption, which is still being developed, is set to apply broadly to vessels moving oil, gasoline, diesel, liquefied natural gas and fertilizer among US ports, the people said. That would enable generally cheaper foreign tankers to move those goods — including Gulf Coast oil to refineries on the US East Coast and fuel from the region to more populous areas.
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By pinkmuffinere 2026-03-1222:47 > On Wednesday, the administration announced it would release 172 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The total reserve is 415 M barrels [1], so this is 41% of the reserve!! And refineries use about 16.5 M barrels per day [2], so if refineries used _only_ this reserve oil, it would keep them busy for 11 days. Of course they aren't _only_ using the reserve oil. I'm sure it will still have an effect, but I think it's a shorter-term solution than it first appears. I don't think this will ease prices for more than a couple months. Would be happy to be corrected if I'm mistaken about some of this.
Edit: I guess that's why they're suspending the jones act, as a longer-term solution. But the article says the Jones act will only save "pennies per gallon, not dimes per gallon", so that also doesn't seem to really do much :/
[1] https://www.spr.doe.gov/dir/dir.html
[2] https://www.afpm.org/newsroom/blog/how-much-oil-does-united-...
By xrd 2026-03-1220:08 Really crazy to think that starting a war across the world is the best way to break a union. Never imagined that.
Amazing, never thought it would happen.
Ridiculous to have laws that unfairly protect dead industries. Dockworkers next please so we can have automated container unloading.
what do you mean here? are dock workers legally protected from automarion?
Yes, some directly via the LHWCA fed law and some indirect via labor union contracts with port associations that rent from the gov port authorities. Ultimately it's such a powerful union that often US presidents take part in the negotiations.
The recently negotiated (nation-wide) deal:
In the deal, the union holds on to existing contract language that protects against certain types of automation, and has won guaranteed jobs where partial automation is put in place.
Port employers will still be blocked from implementing “fully automated” port technology: the employers cannot implement equipment that is “devoid of human interaction.” And the union and the employers have to agree on implementing any new technology; if they cannot agree, the question gets sent to arbitration.
This language prevents East and Gulf Coast port employers from implementing the more extreme forms of automation seen in other parts of the world, including the Long Beach Container Terminal, in Southern California, where autonomous trucks and cranes entirely replace human operators.
By mapt 2026-03-130:08 These ports could buy the union's vote if it was important to them by giving existing workers some equity in the system that is intended to replace them.
By BenFranklin100 2026-03-133:091 reply What’s to stop an enterprising, well funded startup from opening a fully automated port?
By aeternum 2026-03-1315:40 The Jones Act
The ILWU controls labor at all west coast ports, including LALB, which is responsible for a majority of consumer imports from the Pacific. It has bargained effectively to block developing container handling automation systems.
By BenFranklin100 2026-03-133:062 reply “Bargained effectively”? Union boss Harold Daggett extorted the US public by threatening to “cripple the US economy’ if his demands were not met.
By Moomoomoo309 2026-03-1311:15 That is the leverage unions have. Do you expect them not to use it? The union isn't there to protect the economy, it's to protect its members.
By _DeadFred_ 2026-03-1317:15 As opposed to businesses which never use their leverage for the busnisses benefit over the nation as a whole?
By BenFranklin100 2026-03-132:37 I don’t know the legal protections around automation, but the unions virulently fight efforts to automate the industry.
You should listen to Harold Deggett, the dockworkers union boss who threatened to cripple the US economy if automation was introduced:
https://ijr.com/union-boss-willing-to-cripple-america-made-m...
He also lives in a 70,000 sqft mansion:
https://nypost.com/2024/10/02/business/harold-daggetts-spraw...
