The Trump administration is looking into the possibility of enacting an export ban on diesel, as fuel prices continue to rise to record levels across the United States.
According to CNBC, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that the administration is examining whether an export ban is feasible in terms of the country's overall refining capacity, and if either a full or partial ban would help mitigate recent price increases. Average U.S. diesel prices currently sit at $6.53 a gallon, after cresting the $6 mark for the first time in the nation's history in mid September.
The U.S. domestically produces roughly 96% of the diesel fuel it consumes, the Energy Information Administration estimates. Of the 1.76 billion barrels of diesel refined in the U.S. in 2025, around 23% were exported to other countries, primarily to Mexico, Chile, Brazil, the Netherlands, the U.K. and Peru.
However, questions remain over how effective an export ban would actually be when it comes to controlling diesel prices.
"The current price spike here and globally is not a U.S. problem — it's not a domestic shortfall," said GasBuddy head of petroleum analyst Patrick DeHaan in a September 21 analysis.
As DeHaan points out, the U.S. already makes more diesel than it uses. Much of that surplus comes from the Gulf Coast, while the West Coast and the Northeast rely largely on imported fuel. In the event of an export ban, any extra diesel would initially remain near Gulf Coast refineries, and getting it to the Northeast and West Coast would still depend on shipping capacity, and whether moving it there made economic sense.
Although a temporary Jones Act waiver — which expires in November — has made it easier to ship fuel between U.S. ports, it does little to change the reality that it's still more profitable to export fuel than it is to move it coast to coast. In the end, any export ban would only force more diesel supplies into a U.S. market that's already well-supplied, DeHaan noted, while failing to address the root cause of recent price increases, which are tied more to worldwide shortages brought on by disruptions in the Middle East and the Black Sea.
