Libertarian vs Authoritarian: In the end, California’s gasoline detours through the Bahamas are not an oddity or a temporary market quirk. They are a revealing stress test of the Jones Act itself. When a law designed to promote domestic shipping ends up making it cheaper to source fuel from across oceans than from within the same country, it is difficult to argue that it serves its stated purposes. If policymakers are serious about affordability, resilience, and energy security, the lesson from California is clear: a shipping law that forces American fuel to leave the country to move within it is overdue for fundamental reform, if not outright repeal.