Wright Says Fuel Shipping Waiver Extension 'Quite Likely'

Trump administration officials are moving toward granting another temporary extension of a waiver of a century-old shipping law that made it easier to move oil, fuel and fertilizer around the US, the nation’s energy chief said Tuesday. 

“I think another temporary extension of the Jones Act waivers are quite likely to happen,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said during a media briefing at the Port of Brownsville in Texas. “These temporary suspensions of the Jones Act have been quite helpful for moving energy around our country.” 

Wright’s remarks reinforce expectations for an extended waiver. People familiar with the matter said last month that the Trump administration was advancing plans to renew it.

The 1920 law requires that goods carried by water between domestic ports must be transported on US-flagged, -built and -owned ships. Under the current waiver, those restrictions have been removed for coal, crude oil, refined petroleum products, natural gas, gas liquids, fertilizer and other energy derivatives, a move the administration said has lowered prices. 

Wright, in his remarks Tuesday, said “things will go back as they were” once energy flows that have been disrupted by the Iran war return to normal.