Diesel's Price Spike Puts an Export Ban in the Conversation

PBS NewsHour reports that a rapid surge in diesel prices is straining businesses and threatening to raise costs across the economy. That is the kind of cost that shows up everywhere freight does, which is most places worth naming in a grocery aisle or a hardware store — diesel is the fuel that moves goods before a customer ever touches them, so the pressure is on the people who buy it by the tank rather than the gallon. It is also putting pressure on President Trump to bring relief at the pump, the report says, including through a diesel export ban that some Republican lawmakers have pushed for ahead of November's midterm elections. An export ban is not a subtle instrument: it would keep domestic supply home by restricting sales abroad, and the fight over whether that helps consumers or just rearranges who absorbs the shock is the fight ahead.