President Donald Trump said Friday he has ruled out a ban on diesel exports and never really considered one, hours after Europe bowed to U.S. pressure and agreed to release the fuel from its stockpiles.
The announcement appears to end more than a week of frantic lobbying on two continents after soaring fuel prices — driven by the ongoing war with Iran as well as Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries — angered farmers and put pressure on the Trump administration to act before the November midterm elections.
“Europe has a lot of diesel, and they’re going to make a major global contribution, and so do we,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House on a campaign trip. “And we are not going to impose an export ban.
“It was never really on the table, but what Europe has done is a good thing,” he added.
Trump has said repeatedly over the past two weeks that he is willing to suspend fuel exports, which would have been the first restriction on U.S. energy exports since the Obama administration lifted a decades-old ban on oil exports in 2015.
But Energy Secretary Chris Wright and the president’s allies in the oil industry have publicly condemned the idea, warning that it could pose major economic problems for foreign countries that rely on U.S. imports and ultimately lead to higher pump prices at home as refiners cut production.
Those advisers instead urged Trump to push Europe to release fuel from its stockpiles, sparking a frenzied public and private campaign of European governments by Trump administration officials. The G7 announced Friday morning that it would release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil from its strategic reserves over the next four months, starting with an “early and substantial release of diesel in the first 20 days.”
POLITICO reported earlier Friday that the United States had essentially forced hesitant European governments to release their diesel supplies by threatening them with an export ban, with one European diplomat calling it “blackmail.”
Trump told reporters Friday that he had “asked” Europe to exploit its stockpiles, but maintained that Europeans decided to exploit their stocks of their own accord.
“We have a very good relationship with Europe, and they wanted to do this because they have a lot of diesel,” Trump said. “I said it would be great if you took it to the markets, and they did.”
The Trump administration could still announce new measures on diesel prices, short of even a ban, next week, according to two people familiar with the discussions. Among the ideas being evaluated are getting more states to lift restrictions on red-tinted off-road diesel and suspend excise taxes on diesel sales.
Meredith Lee Hill and Ben Lefebvre contributed reporting.
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