Long resistant to the idea of diesel export bans, Washington is now willing to entertain it. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said he is open to exploring a ban on diesel exports as pump prices climb to levels never seen before.
“We’ll be looking at any proposal that is a viable solution, but I do think if we have the supply in this country and we’re exporting it right now, that might be one way of getting at it,” Thune told reporters at the Capitol. “If that would take pressure off of prices, you know, I’m open to exploring it.”
The pressure is considerable. Diesel crossed $6 per gallon for the first time ever last week, and the national average sat at $6.26 as of Tuesday, according to AAA. Because the fuel powers trucks, trains and heavy machinery, its cost filters through much of the broader economy.
Sponsored · Selkirk Copper Mines
Supply has tightened as conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine bite, lifting both diesel and the chemically similar home heating oil. Oil itself is now trading above $100 per barrel, with Brent crude peaking at around $109 on Tuesday and West Texas Intermediate topping $105.
The Kremlin has halted diesel exports after Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries, removing a major source from the market. Russia typically accounts for roughly one in nine barrels of global diesel production. On Monday, President Donald Trump said Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop targeting key energy infrastructure, however strikes on energy infrastructure occurred again overnight.
The stakes of a US ban are not lost on market watchers, given the country’s outsized role in global supply.
Backing for the idea is not yet coming from the Trump administration. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Monday that a ban on oil or fuel exports would be unlikely to bring relief at the pump.
“We would consider an export ban if we thought that actually might lower prices, but that’s not the case,” Burgum told reporters at a G20 energy meeting in Houston.
Other levers came up as well. Thune described suspending the federal fuel tax as a short-term fix that would create holes in the Highway Trust Fund, which depends on that revenue. In Texas, Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico has urged his Republican opponent, state Attorney General Ken Paxton, to support suspending the federal diesel tax.
An export ban makes more sense in Thune’s view, though he added that reopening the Strait of Hormuz would be the ideal outcome.
The regional picture already looks strained, with the Great Lakes states seen as especially exposed.
The political timing is difficult for Republicans and the administration, who are wrestling with how to bring record diesel prices down ahead of the November midterm elections.
