In July 2022, the six New England state governors sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm raising concerns that the region’s energy costs would spike this winter due to a lack of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which the area has limited access to thanks to the Jones Act. This century-old, protectionist law restricts all domestic shipping to U.S.-flagged, -built, -owned, and -staffed vessels, excluding oftentimes cheaper international competitors from U.S. maritime trade.
Liquefied natural gas costs have gotten so high that it has become cheaper for New England states to import LNG from overseas than from the Gulf