Why Hawaii Needs a Jones Act Waiver

Russian Oil Sanctions and the Jones Act. 

Hawaii Together, March, 2022

Colin Grabow, Grassroot Scholar and policy analyst at the Cato Institute, discusses President Joe Biden’s ban on Russian oil imports and why Hawaii needs a Jones Act waiver to ensure its energy security.

Currently Hawaii is almost wholly reliant on foreign fuel sources, due to Jones Act restrictions on shipping goods between U.S. ports that make it too expensive to buy U.S. oil. Also, in the event of an emergency, there also are too few Jones Act oil tankers available to ship fuel to Hawaii from the U.S. mainland.

Joe Kent, Grassroot Institute of Hawaii executive vice president, is the program host.