Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas
Despite the outrage expressed by U.S. maritime pursuits over his earlier difficulty of a “temporary and targeted” Jones Act waiver for Puerto Rico, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas authorised one other such waiver yesterday—this time for LNG.
Following is the assertion launched yesterday by DHS:
“In support of the Puerto Rican people as they continue to recover from Hurricane Fiona, I have approved a temporary and targeted Jones Act waiver to address the unique and urgent need for liquified natural gas in Puerto Rico. As with the previous waiver, the decision to approve was made in consultation with the Departments of Transportation and Energy to assess the justification for the waiver request and based on input from the Governor of Puerto Rico and others on the ground supporting recovery efforts.”
The Jones Act is significant to sustaining the energy of the American shipbuilding and maritime industries by requiring all maritime cargo transport between U.S. ports to happen on U.S. flagged vessels. When U.S. flagged vessels usually are not out there to fulfill nationwide protection necessities, the Department of Homeland Security could grant a waiver to the Jones Act if the proposed shipments are within the curiosity of nationwide protection and after cautious analysis of the difficulty. In 2020, Congress eradicated the federal authorities’s authority to difficulty long-term complete waivers, besides in circumstances the place a waiver is required to “address an immediate adverse effect on military operations.” Under the regulation, waivers that don’t meet that customary have to be reviewed on a case-by-case foundation.
A tweet from the Governor of Puerto Rico sheds some mild on the cargo coated by the waiver.
