Trump backs diesel export ban amid record UCL prices

President Trump has endorsed banning U.S. diesel exports as the national average price for diesel reached a record $6.52 per gallon on Tuesday, according to AAA. Though relatively few Americans fill their cars with diesel, the fuel powers the trucks, ships, and trains that move goods across the country, and it is also used heavily in agriculture. Prices have climbed nearly 80% since the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran earlier this year, and they rose almost $1 per gallon in September alone.

Speaking from the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Trump said he has called for a ban on sending diesel abroad: "I told Kharon it, let's not send out the diesel." The move has drawn interest from Republican lawmakers including Senator Chuck Grassley and Representative Ashley Hinson of Iowa, as well as Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who said he's open to exploring it if it would reduce pressure on prices. The idea has precedent: a 1975 law effectively banned crude oil exports until it was lifted decades later.

But experts are split on how much a ban would actually cut prices. Jeff Colgan, a Brown University political scientist who helped build a cost tracker for the war's impact, says boosting domestic supply would lower prices. He could make no exact estimate but said "It could make a huge difference." In contrast, GasBuddy's Patrick De Haan argues that U.S. diesel prices are set by a global balance, not a domestic one, so halting exports wouldn't change the world price significantly. New Energy Administration of Economic data shows that during the week of September 11, the U.S. produced over 5 million barrels of distillate fuels daily and exported about 1.6 million of them, while domestic reserves have fallen to their lowest levels since 1882.