Foreign countries, including Russia, benefit from WWI-era Jones Act

Since the Russian army’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, the United States has done everything it can diplomatically to punish the Russian incursion, with one colossal petrochemical exception.

Sanctions have been leveled, and international banks have frozen the accounts of Russian officials. Many state funds have divested of Russian assets. Countless exchanges of goods and services between Russian and American businesses have been forcibly ground to a halt by law. However, energy has been mainly left alone.