Press Releases

(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Representative Ed Case (Hawai‘i-First) today asked President Trump to extend the current 60-day waiver of the Jones Act, citing continued global shipping disruptions, constrained fuel supply chains and rising gasoline and energy costs in Hawai‘i, along with implications for U.S. military readiness in the Indo-Pacific.

The current waiver, which will expire soon, allows international shipping to transit critical oil, fuel and other fossil fuel-based products from the Continental U.S., where supplies are available, to Hawai‘i. It provides an alternative if international shipping stops or becomes prohibitively expensive. This alternative is not available under the Jones Act because there are not enough qualifying ships (built and flagged in the U.S.) to deliver these products to Hawai‘i from the Continental U.S. even in stable times and especially not in times of international disruption.

In his letter, Case told the President: “As Epic Fury continues to disrupt international oil, shipping and related markets, placing especially the non-contiguous parts of our country such as Hawai‘i at particular risk, I respectfully request that you extend your March 18, 2026, waiver of the Jones Act pursuant to 46 U.S.C. § 501(a), currently set to expire May 17, 2026, for another sixty days.”

Case warned that without the waiver, Hawai‘i is exposed not only to even higher sustained price spikes but also to potential fuel supply interruptions given Hawaii’s extreme reliance on maritime imports and limited shipping options.

Case shared with the President that Hawai‘i “is one of the most isolated parts of our country, depending on shipping for over ninety percent of our goods, including nearly all of our fossil fuel products. Yet the Jones Act severely limits shipping options from the continental U.S. to U.S. Jones Act vessels only, despite the widespread availability of shipping in the international markets.”

The Jones Act, a century-old federal maritime law, mandates that all cargo shipped between U.S. ports be transported on U.S.-flagged vessels, excluding most ships operating in global trade that are flagged internationally. With fewer than 100 oceangoing Jones Act vessels nationwide, limited domestic capacity faces no international competition, contributing to higher shipping costs.

The constraints are stark: of the nearly 7,500 oil tankers operating worldwide, only 54 are Jones Act-compliant and eligible to move fossil fuel products from the Continent to Hawai‘i, which remains heavily dependent on imported fossil fuel products for energy. As a result, Hawai‘i typically must source most of its essential resources from foreign markets, where shipping is far cheaper.

“Epic Fury has further disrupted this already fragile system. International suppliers that Hawai‘i has historically relied upon are restricting exports, forcing greater dependence on domestic energy sources at precisely the time when Jones Act-compliant vessels are least available. This dual constraint of reduced international supply and insufficient domestic shipping capacity has made the waiver essential to maintaining adequate fuel flows to the state.”

Without the waiver, these combined pressures risk not only continued upward pressure on already elevated fuel prices, but also meaningful constraints on the ability to reliably secure and deliver essential energy supplies to Hawai‘i under stressed market conditions.

Case also highlighted to the President the extensive military presence in Hawai’i which is largely dependent on the same sources of energy, fuel and other fossil fuel products as the civilian population. He said: “Both these services and their active duty and civilian personnel and families are all being impacted by substantially higher fossil fuel-related costs and will be even more impacted if oil imports to Hawaii are outright unavailable.”

In the current 119^th Congress, Case again introduced legislation to reform the Jones Act and open up Hawai‘i - continent shipping to international competition.

·         Copy of the letter to the President is here: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:dcf0ffa6-f721-4784-9b38-b4abace3276d

·         Case’s February 14, 2025, press release on introduction of his current measures is here: https://case.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3520.

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