Senate Majority Leader John Thune Floats a Diesel Export Ban as Prices Hit $6.31 a Gallon. Trump Team Not Convinced It Would Work
Diesel prices just hit a level that has Washington reaching for a policy tool it has never once deployed on refined fuel, but the experts arguing it would backfire may have the more convincing case.
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US retail diesel prices hit a record this week, and Washington is openly debating a tool it has never used before: an export ban on a refined petroleum product. The reported national average sat at roughly $6.31 per gallon on September 16, 2026, per AAA-sourced data cited in press coverage, according to Forbes. Against that backdrop, Colorado Politics reported on September 15, 2026 that Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he is open to exploring a diesel export ban, telling reporters, “If the United States has the supply and is exporting it, that might be one way of getting at it.”
Squeeze From Three Directions
The price move reflects three compounding supply shocks. Continued war-related disruption to Iranian and Middle East oil flows has tightened crude available to global refiners. Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries have taken meaningful volumes of Russian diesel production offline, in a country responsible for roughly one in nine barrels of global diesel output. US distillate exports ran at a record pace in early August 2026, draining domestic tanks. OilPrice.com reported that US distillate stockpiles fell to their lowest seasonal level since 1996. US retail regular gasoline averaged $4.32 per gallon nationally for the week ending September 14, 2026, up $0.31 from a month earlier.
Burgum Pushes Back on the Mechanics
Speaking at the G20 Energy Ministerial in Houston, per Colorado Politics, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said, “We would consider an export ban if we thought that actually might lower prices, but that’s not the case.” He warned a ban could invite retaliation from trading partners and hurt consumers in states like California that rely partly on foreign fuel imports.
The technical objection is sharper. The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates roughly 70% of US refining capacity is built to process heavy, sour crude imported from abroad, not the light, sweet crude from American shale fields. Most US refineries are tuned to thicker, higher-sulfur oil they buy overseas. A ban that trapped US-produced light crude at home would not automatically yield more diesel, because the refineries best suited to make it cannot easily process what is available. CSIS argues an export ban would not deliver “sustained fuel price relief,” and warns refiners running at a loss could simply cut activity, deepening the shortage, according to Center for Strategic and International Studies.
White House Keeps Its Options Open
The administration’s response has been notably non-committal. White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said, “President Trump remains committed to unleashing American energy dominance, cutting costs, and putting more money back in the pockets of hardworking American families. As the U.S. continues to maintain full control of the Strait of Hormuz, oil and gas prices will fall back to pre-conflict levels.” That statement neither endorses nor rules out an export ban, according to The White House. It marks a shift from an earlier position in which the U.S. Department of the Interior said the “Trump administration has no plan to implement restrictions on oil and gas exports.”
Trump’s recent commentary has focused on producers. On August 3, 2026, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that without his administration “the Oil Industry, and our Country itself, would be DEAD!” and accused ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM | XOM Price Prediction) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) of “making too much money.”
A Tool Washington Has Never Used
The United States banned crude oil exports beginning in 1975 and lifted that ban in 2015. Refined products like diesel and gasoline have never been subject to a comparable export ban in the modern era. Whatever Thune is willing to explore, it would be genuinely new policy.
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AJ spent 10 years writing about financial markets at The Motley Fool. His coverage centers on technology stocks and the broader macroeconomic trends, from interest rates to geopolitics, that shape where markets are headed next. AJ is drawn to the stories where big-picture economics and individual companies collide.
