'Let's not send out the diesel': Trump floats ban on US diesel exports
Jennifer Schonberger · Senior Reporter
Tue, September 22, 2026 at 11:54 PM GMT+3 2 min read
President Trump said Tuesday that he would support banning exports of diesel fuel.
"I've said let's not send out the diesel," the president said on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. "We make a lot of diesel. It could have a little bit of an effect on regular automobile gasoline because when you do that, you know, it's a sort of a flow. It's a balance."
Trump added, "But no, I've called for it. I've called for it within my people. I've been talking about it."
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he's examining whether a diesel export ban is feasible, given overall refining capacity and whether a full or partial ban would work.
The national average price of diesel fuel has surged to an all-time record of $6.52 per gallon, according to AAA, a staggering 77% increase compared to this time last year.
Driven primarily by global supply crunches from the wars in Iran and Ukraine, the sudden spike is acting as a massive tax on the US supply chain, which is heavily reliant on diesel to move goods. Because diesel is the economy's primary industrial fuel, its high cost is spilling over into consumer prices nationwide.
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, posted on X, "this will backfire and is not good."
"U.S. diesel prices are determined not by a U.S. supply and demand balance, but a global one," De Haan wrote. "Keeping distillates and diesel [at] home does not change the world price that reference our prices. You can't fence off a globally traded commodity by executive order and expect the global price to stop applying to it."
Economist Joseph Brusuelas warned that the export ban could backfire for another reason: if energy producers pull back on production. The US produces 5.3 million barrels per day, above the 3.6 million barrels of daily domestic demand. He says an export ban would create a short-term domestic surplus, which would then have to be sold at a discount. That, in turn, could cause energy firms to pull back on production, sending prices back up.
Jennifer Schonberger is a veteran financial journalist covering markets, the economy, and investing. At Yahoo Finance, she covers the Federal Reserve, Congress, the White House, the Treasury, the SEC, the economy, cryptocurrencies, and the intersection of Washington policy with finance. Follow her on X @Jenniferisms and on Instagram.
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Yorumlar (0)
Giriş yaparak yorum yazabilirsin.
İlk yorumu sen yaz.