Trump rules out diesel export ban after Europe agrees to tap stockpiles
Por James Bikales — POLITICO – TOP Stories
President Donald Trump said Friday he was ruling out a diesel export ban and never really considered one in the first place, hours after Europe caved to U.S. pressure and agreed to release fuel from its stockpiles.
The announcement appears to put to rest more than a week of frantic lobbying across two continents after surging fuel prices — caused by the ongoing war against Iran as well as Ukrainian attacks against Russian refineries — have angered farmers and put pressure on the Trump administration to act ahead of the November midterm elections.
“Europe has a lot of diesel, and they’re going to be making a major world contribution, and so are we,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House for a campaign trip. “And we’re not going to be doing the export ban.
“It was never really ever on the table, but what Europe did was a great thing,” he added.
Trump had repeatedly said over the last two weeks that he was open to suspending exports of the fuel, 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. The president said just over a week ago that “I’ve called for that” when asked about a possible ban.
But Energy Secretary Chris Wright and the president’s allies in the oil industry publicly condemned the idea, warning it could pose major economic problems for foreign countries who rely on U.S. imports and eventually result in higher pump prices at home as refiners scaled back production.
Those advisers urged Trump instead to push Europe to release fuel from its stockpiles, prompting a frantic public and private campaign of European governments by Trump administration officials. The G-7 announced Friday morning they would release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil from their strategic reserves over the next four months, beginning with a “frontloaded substantial diesel release within the first 20 days.”
POLITICO reported earlier Friday that the U.S. had essentially strong-armed hesitant EU governments into releasing their diesel supplies with the threat of an export ban, with one European diplomat labeling it “blackmail.”
Trump told reporters Friday that he had “asked for” Europe to tap its stockpiles, but maintained that the Europeans had decided to tap their stockpiles out of their own volition.
“We have a very good relationship with Europe, and they wanted to do it because they have a lot of diesel,” Trump said. “I said it would be great if you put it out to the markets, and they did it.”
The Trump administration could still announce further measures on diesel prices short of a ban next week, according to two people familiar with the discussions. Among the ideas being evaluated are pushing more states to lift restrictions on red-dyed off-road diesel and suspend excise taxes on diesel sales.
Meredith Lee Hill and Ben Lefebvre contributed reporting.
Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories
