More than 30 US business, energy and manufacturing groups sent a joint letter to US President Donald Trump on Wednesday urging him to reject any ban or limit on diesel exports, after Politico reported the White House was preparing a temporary one.
The signatories span the American Petroleum Institute, the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, Business Roundtable, and a wide range of state-level trade groups.
The letter warned that export bans would lead to “less fuel production, tighter supplies, and rising costs” for American families, farmers, and truckers. API’s signature on the letter is the real surprise here, more than its size. It’s been a reliable supporter of the administration’s energy agenda throughout, rarely, if ever, criticizing Trump in public.
Read: Diesel Hits Its Highest Price In History As Trump Still Blames Ukraine, Not Iran
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Energy Secretary Chris Wright dismissed it at a Climate Week event on Wednesday, saying “the blunt tool of banning diesel exports definitely doesn’t work” and warning it would force refiners to cut output, pushing gasoline and jet fuel prices up instead. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum made a similar case earlier this month, telling reporters an export ban only made sense if it would actually lower prices, and that isn’t the case here.
The US exports roughly 1.5 million barrels of diesel a day, most of it from Gulf Coast refineries, but pipeline capacity constraints mean that fuel can’t easily reach the Midwest or Northeast even if it stayed onshore — meaning a ban could shrink supply without actually fixing the regional price spikes driving the political pressure in the first place.
