Trump to scrap gas-shipping waiver

President Donald Trump pledged May 1 he would not waive requirements that American vessels be used to transport natural gas among U.S. ports, according to Gulf Coast and Alaska Republicans defending the mandates after a meeting at the White House. Lawmakers from Alaska, Louisiana and Mississippi claimed that Trump ruled out relaxing mandates under the Jones Act in order to facilitate shipments of liquefied natural gas to Massachusetts and Puerto Rico. “He’s not going to make any changes to the Jones Act,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). The pledge marks a reversal in White House policy-thinking, and a victory for American shipbuilders’ interests and their allies on Capitol Hill. Waiver supporters, such as oilman Harold Hamm, have promoted the exemptions as essential to lowering the cost of energy in Puerto Rico and ease the flow of American natural gas to the Northeast, where there aren’t enough pipelines to deliver the product from Pennsylvania. (Source: Bloomberg 05/01/19)