Trump weighs diesel export ban to ease record fuel prices

GOP farm-state lawmakers press for a pause ahead of midterms

President Trump said Tuesday he is considering restricting U.S. diesel exports to ease record fuel prices, telling reporters during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York that he has raised the idea with administration officials. “I’ve called for that, too. I said, ‘Let’s not send out the diesel.’ We make a lot of diesel. It could have a little of an effect on regular automobile gasoline, because when you do that, it’s sort of a flow, a balance,” Trump said. “I’ve called for it — I’ve called for it with my people.” A decision would come “fast, one way or the other,” he added.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed the administration is studying whether a ban is workable. The U.S. is “examining” a diesel export ban and “whether it’s feasible in the overall refining capacity and whether a full or partial ban would work,” he said. Rumors of a possible fuel-export pause had circulated for weeks, with the administration repeatedly denying it would resort to that measure.

The pressure on pump prices has come amid a tightening of global diesel supplies. The national average for a gallon of diesel reached $6.53 on Tuesday, up nearly a dollar over the past month, according to Oil Price Information Service, a Dow Jones company. Commercial diesel inventories in the U.S. have dropped 11% since the start of the war with Iran, while exports of the fuel are up 31% on a weekly basis, according to the Energy Information Administration. Missile strikes have crippled fuel-making facilities in the Middle East and Russia. Trump has blamed the war in Ukraine for elevated prices, citing the ripple effect Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil infrastructure have had on global energy supplies.

The idea is gaining support among farm-state Republicans facing competitive midterm elections. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) said the president should impose a ban similar to agricultural-product embargoes imposed by presidents in the 1970s amid elevated food prices. Former Rep. Mike Rogers, running for Senate in Michigan, and Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, who is seeking re-election, have also called for a temporary pause in diesel exports.

Rep. Ashley Hinson (R., Iowa), who is running for the open Senate seat in Iowa, said Monday she wanted the administration to pause diesel exports, arguing that Iowans “shouldn’t have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line for the war in Iran.” Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R., Iowa) also called for a suspension of diesel exports and federal gas taxes. A diesel export ban is one of several ideas the Trump administration is weighing to bring down soaring energy prices for American consumers and businesses.

The oil industry is strongly opposed to any export ban, given that U.S. fuel makers could lose the trust of some overseas buyers. Analysts say a ban could backfire over the longer term. If U.S. refiners lose foreign customers, they are likely to scale back processing of crude, reducing output of gasoline and jet fuel as well — potentially lifting prices across the barrel.

An export ban would reverse decades of U.S. trade policy. The country imposed a 40-year ban on crude exports in 1975, following the Arab oil embargo, when U.S. refineries relied heavily on foreign crude. Congress lifted that ban in 2015, and the oil industry has lobbied to keep Washington from reimposing one, given that lifting an export ban is far more difficult politically than imposing one in an emergency.

Globally, diesel supplies have tightened dramatically as conflicts have compromised refineries and trade routes in the Middle East and Russia. China, South Korea and Japan have curtailed fuel exports after crude moving through the Strait of Hormuz stalled for months. The U.S., the world’s largest oil producer, is among the last major global suppliers of diesel and other refined fuels, with some of the world’s largest refining complexes on the Gulf Coast and in the Midwest and California. American refiners have historically shipped large amounts of fuel abroad to chase higher prices, and the country produces more fuel than it consumes.