Thune "Open To Exploring" Diesel Export Ban As Skyrocketing Prices Raise Fears Of 2008-Style Shock

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters this morning that he is "open to exploring" a diesel export ban as AAA's national average price for the industrial fuel continues to set new highs, now topping $6.27 a gallon.

*THUNE SAYS HE IS 'OPEN TO CONSIDERING' AN EXPORT BAN ON DIESEL

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 15, 2026

His comments follow a warning yesterday from Bloomberg Intelligence senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone that surging fuel prices are signaling the risk of a 2008-style energy shock.

"We'll be looking at any proposal that is a viable solution, but I do think if we have the supply in this country and we're exporting it right now that might be one way of getting at it," Thune told reporters, who were quoted by Bloomberg, in response to a question. "If that would take pressure off of prices, you know I'm open to exploring it."

Any broad diesel ban by the US would initially lower Gulf Coast wholesale prices while driving overseas diesel prices even higher, as the world is engulfed in a refinery crisis produced by the Russia-Ukraine war and compounded by the mess in the Gulf area.

The latest EIA data show U.S. distillate exports averaged about 1.7 million barrels a day over the four weeks through September 4. Distillates include diesel and heating oil, so the volume affected would depend on the ban's scope.

The surge in industrial fuel costs prompted Bloomberg Intelligence's McGlone to warn on Monday: "Commodity spikes tend to sow the seeds of their own reversal, and diesel's first-ever surge above $6 a gallon may echo gasoline's 2008 experience. The US daily average gasoline price, at roughly $4.30 on Sept. 11, is only about 4% above its 2008 peak, which helped fuel the Great Recession."

JPMorgan's head of commodities research, Natasha Kaneva, outlined six policy options in March that the Trump administration could pursue to contain oil prices.

Several, including Jones Act waivers and SPR releases, have already been deployed. New discussion of export restrictions raises the question of whether a federal fuel-tax suspension could also enter the policy conversation to contain runaway fuel prices.