There is bitching whenever jones act waivers are signed for Puerto Rico because there isn’t a problem with shipping capacity on American bottoms. Most of Puerto Rico’s problems are in Puerto Rico. After the two big storms a couple years back Crowley had ships and barges stacked up with no way to get goods inland as the roads were gone.

Hawaii is another good example. There is nothing stopping hawaii from getting fuel on foreign ships, as long is it comes from foreign sources. This also happens on a regular basis. There is nothing stopping them from getting consumer goods via container on foreign flagged ships, aside from the fact that the harbors are too small, and they are way off the most efficient track for Asia to west coast traffic.