Akina says Jones Act waiver is ‘tacit admission’ law needs to be reformed

from Grassroot Institute

Not long after President Donald Trump issued a 60-day waiver of the Jones Act to help reduce oil prices in the wake of war in Iran, Grassroot President Keli’i Akina sat down with KSSK radio host Michael W. Perry on March 26 to discuss the impact the waiver could have on Hawaii’s energy costs and supply chains. 

Akina said the Jones Act’s mandate that all goods shipped between U.S. ports travel on American-built vessels has created a severe shortage of available ships, noting that “one of the last remaining shipyards that builds tankers for the Jones Act … produces one to one and a half ships per year. But Korea, South Korea, has a shipyard that produces one per week.”

He also pointed out that American-built ships cost up to five times more than foreign-built vessels and characterized the latest waiver as “a tacit admission that it’s time to modify the Jones Act.”

Additionally, the conversation touched on potential congressional action, with Akina praising U.S. Rep. Ed Case as one congressional delegate who “gets it” and is actively calling for Jones Act amendments. 

Akina concluded with a pointed observation about the law’s fundamental contradiction. “There’s something terribly wrong when it becomes necessary during a time of war to waive a law that was intended to strengthen national security,” he said.