The Cato Institute is tracking domestic U.S. shipping activity as a result of the current Jones Act waiver, which went into effect March 17, 2026. The data show there have been 127 voyages using 113 vessels transporting petroleum and related products between points in the U.S. These are some of the key findings.

• Gulf Coast to West Coast Fuel Trade: In the waiver’s first 50 days, foreign-flagged tankers moved approximately 1.59 million barrels of energy products (excluding renewable diesel) from the Gulf Coast to the West Coast, which is roughly four times the volume moved by water on that route in all of 2025. In the waiver’s first 70 days, more gasoline and jet fuel were moved from the Gulf Coast to the West Coast than in the entirety of 2020–2025.
   
• Puerto Rico Purchases U.S. Propane: No liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tankers exist in the Jones Act fleet. As a result, Puerto Rico had been effectively barred from bulk U.S. propane purchases and was forced to import from distant sources. The waiver opened the global LPG fleet to domestic routes, allowing bulk propane to reach Puerto Rico from the US mainland for the first time.
   
• Crude Oil Reaches Pennsylvania: The waiver’s first 60 days saw four movements of crude oil, both Bakken oil and West Texas Intermediate, from Texas to the East Coast. In 2017, the CEO of a Jones Act tanker company acknowledged that without the law, “there probably would be more movements of crude oil from Texas to Philadelphia.” The waiver has borne that out.
   
• Foreign vessels have supplemented, not replaced, the Jones Act fleet: With the Jones Act tanker fleet fully employed, each foreign-flagged voyage represents demand that would otherwise have gone unmet.