US waives shipping regulation to ease fuel, fertilizer deliveries
The Trump administration on Wednesday announced a 60-day waiver of Jones Act shipping regulations to help ease deliveries of fuel and fertilizer to combat rising prices and supply disruptions caused by the conflict in Iran.
“President Trump’s decision to issue a 60-day Jones Act waiver is just another step to mitigate the short-term disruptions to the oil market as the U.S. military continues meeting the objectives of Operation Epic Fury,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
“This action will allow vital resources like oil, natural gas, fertilizer, and coal to flow freely to U.S. ports for sixty days, and the Administration remains committed to continuing to strengthen our critical supply chains,” she said.
Peter Zeihan has long been a critic of the Jones Act, as he explains in this video from Oct. 31, 2023.
Reviving Water Transport in the United States
By Peter Zeihan
Hey everybody. Peter Zeihan here. Coming to you from Milwaukee, where I’m doing a little street hiking along the Kinnickinnic river, which is, you know, say that five times fast. This used to be one of the great industrial heartlands of the United States. Big into steel. Big into heavy manufacturing. And the reason was because of what’s right here next to me.
Moving things on water is about 1/12. The cost of moving them by land and courtesy of in the Air and the nearby Lake Michigan. Milwaukee, just like Chicago, just like Oshkosh and Green Bay, were part of a broader transport network that included the entirety of the Upper Midwest, of the United States and the New England States and the Mid Atlantic states.
Basically from here in Chicago. You can take your local rivers and canals out to the Great Lakes, go through the Great Lakes until you get to Erie, and then you’ve got two choices. You can either take the Mohawk River, Erie Canal and Hudson to New York direct, or you can go the long way, which goes through Quebec and Ontario in order to reach the Atlantic Ocean.
