Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Wednesday the Trump administration plans to steer clear of an outright ban on diesel exports as prices soar during wars abroad — rejecting a Politico report saying the White House is preparing a 90-day prohibition that could be announced within days.
Speaking Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Wright said he favors voluntary limits on diesel exports, instead.
“We’re trying to avoid a blunt hammer of a government policy, understanding the complexity of refining,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
The energy secretary said the US still needs to help supply the global diesel market while finding a way to change the trajectory of prices at home.
The planned restrictions would be voluntary, though Wright offered few details about how they would work.
Politico reported Wednesday that the White House is preparing an outright ban on diesel exports, citing five people familiar with the discussions.
The legal process for such a ban was still being worked out, according to the report, which said President Trump was leaning to announcing the move by the end of the week despite opposition from some administration officials and oil-industry executives.
The White House denied the report, with an official telling Politico: “This is another fake news news story from Politico.”
The outlet reported that Wright, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have all voiced internal objections to a total ban.
Wright also made calls to energy CEOs Tuesday night telling them a 90-day ban was likely in the coming days, according to a Trump energy adviser cited by Politico, prompting some executives to contact the White House and urge it to reconsider.
On Wednesday, Wright was even more emphatic about the risks of an outright prohibition.
“The blunt tool of banning diesel exports definitely doesn’t work,” he said at an event hosted by the Economist in New York.
Wright warned that blocking exports could leave refiners with nowhere to put excess diesel, eventually forcing them to cut refinery runs and putting upward pressure on gasoline and jet fuel prices.
Average US diesel prices stood at $6.52 a gallon Wednesday, up 76% from a year earlier, according to AAA. The average price of a gallon of gas was $4.47.
The spike has hammered farmers and other heavy users of diesel as global supplies have tightened amid the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine.
Trump on Tuesday voiced support for stopping diesel exports as Republicans from farm states and competitive congressional districts pressed the administration to act on fuel costs ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
“I’ve said, let’s not send out the diesel,” he told reporters Tuesday.
Bessent said at the time that officials were studying whether a full or partial restriction would be feasible.
Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, called a diesel export ban “a bad idea with some serious unintended consequences,” noting that the US exports roughly 1.5 million barrels a day of diesel to markets in Europe, Central and South America and as far away as Australia.
“Banning exports means the rest of the world needs to find 1.5 million barrels per day that they previously bought from the USA,” Lipow said, adding that “prices will go down in the USA, but the rest of the world will see higher prices.”
He warned that US refiners would eventually have to store excess diesel or cut production.
“Refineries that process less crude oil will produce less of everything else — gasoline, jet fuel, lube oils, asphalt,” Lipow said. “Shortages would develop in those product categories, and I would expect significantly higher prices at the pump.”
The prospect of a blanket ban has alarmed the oil industry, which argues that Gulf Coast refiners depend on foreign markets to absorb surplus diesel that cannot easily be redirected to other parts of the country.
Some industry executives and Republican lawmakers were still lobbying Trump against the proposal Wednesday, Politico reported, amid concerns that any short-term drop in diesel prices could eventually give way to higher prices for gasoline, jet fuel and other petroleum products.
A full ban could force US refiners to slash crude processing by about 1.9 million barrels a day — about 12% of total refinery throughput — as available storage becomes constrained, according to an analysis by S&P Global Energy CERA.
Such cuts could knock as much as 750,000 barrels a day off US gasoline production and turn the country into a net gasoline importer during the fourth quarter, the analysis found.
That risk stems from the economics of refining: plants produce diesel alongside gasoline, jet fuel and other products.
If refiners cut overall runs because they can no longer sell surplus diesel abroad, production of the other fuels would fall, too.
The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers has opposed a full export ban on similar grounds, arguing that restricting exports would ultimately reduce domestic fuel production rather than boost supplies for US consumers.
The Journal reported that some industry lobbyists have also raised questions about whether discussions among refiners over voluntary export limits could create antitrust concerns.
The Post has sought comment from the White House.