American Maritime Partnership President Jennifer Carpenter’s Letter to the Editor to the Washington Post was published online on July 6, 2026.
Read the full letter:
After more than 100 days, ships using the Jones Act waiver moved only about 32 million barrels of petroleum. That is roughly 1.5 percent of U.S. petroleum consumption during that same period.
According to analysis from American Maritime Partnership and Navigistics Consulting, about 18 percent of waiver voyages were performed by vessels linked to Chinese entities, while U.S.-built, owned and crewed vessels remained available. Broker reporting showed that qualified Jones Act vessels and American mariners have sat idle throughout the waiver, not being used to transport needed fuel across the country.
If Congress wants to address refinery closures, fuel markets or regional supply challenges that have hurt America’s energy dominance, it should do so directly. But the Jones Act waiver has shown that the maritime industry is not a driver of gas prices. All it has demonstrated is that without the Jones Act, vessels built in China, crewed by underpaid mariners, flying flags of small countries to dodge taxes and regulations, can and will undermine investment and growth in an all-American industry.
Jennifer Carpenter, Alexandria
The writer is president of the American Maritime Partnership.
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