美拟禁运柴油90天，油价创纪录推高通胀与中期选举压力

Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news. The expectation is a lot of pain is still ahead. That this is not a short-term situation, particularly if we don't see a quick resolution to the the war in Iran.

This week, diesel prices hit $6.50 a gallon. That's a record high. Today, Politico reported that in an effort to push prices back down, the Trump administration is preparing a plan for a 90-day ban on diesel exports.

Diesel touches all aspects of the US economy. So, when the price of diesel goes up, it just affects all aspects of pricing in the US.

The high price of diesel is starting to affect all kinds of industries from farming to shipping to tourism. Fish on.

We got them starboard side.

Starboard

because diesel powers tractors, trucks, home heaters, and fishing boats.

On the one with the fish on it. Okay.

Rob Gudgel captains a 43 ft charter boat in Washington State. He takes passengers out on fishing expeditions into the Pacific. Fuel is is one of the number one costs that we have to endure. The other day, fuel jumped up 85 cents a gallon.

For a 130 mile trip, Rob's twin engines burn about 130 gall of diesel.

I was paying around $600 for a trip.

And now

it's closer to $1,000. Not quite $1,000, but it's darn close. We try to eat some of it because everybody's going through a tough time. Cost of fuel drives the economy. Doesn't matter if you're going to the grocery store, the clothes you buy, it's plane, trains, ships, whatever it is. That's what drives the economy is the cost of fuel.

And with the midterms coming up, the cost of fuel is also driving politics.

Voters are are inclined to blame President Trump and Republicans who are in control in power right now for high diesel prices. While they have seen price spikes in the past, they do not think that diesel or home heating oil would be at record levels if not for the Iran war. I'm Sarah Holder and this is the big take from Bloomberg News. Today on the show, Bloomberg National Economics reporter Mark Mikette on how record high diesel prices affect everyone in the global economy and the impact they could have on the US midterms.

So Mark, help us understand what's been driving up the cost of diesel. Why has it been rising faster than the cost of gasoline?

Well, there's a confluence of events for increasing diesel prices. Uh we've had Ukrainian attacks on Russia uh refining of diesel and Russia has also banned exports of diesel. Uh and Russia supplied previously about 10% of the world's supply of of diesel. Uh so we've had declining exports from Russia, but it's happening at the same time that we've seen the uh shipments of diesel and refining of diesel in the Middle East constrained because of the Iran war.

So sort of the combination of those two things um has really driven up the price of diesel and diesel is more expensive than gasoline because it costs more to refine diesel because of environmental standards and there's the global demand for diesel is higher. So the price of diesel attracts higher than gasoline typically.

And you're describing some compounding factors that have led to the rise in the price of diesel. President Donald Trump, for his part, has said that quote, "The world's diesel price rise is mostly caused by the Russia Ukraine war, not Iran." That was in a truth social post earlier this month. Is it possible to tease out how much impact the war in Iran may be having versus something like the Russian export ban? What are you hearing from the experts you're talking to about how to weight these various causes?

Yeah, it's hard to tease out, you know, exactly how much of the increase would come from the uh Iran war versus, you know, the the Russian uh export reduction. I mean, the administration wants to blame this all on, you know, Russian refining capacity being affected by the uh Russia Ukraine war and also um you know, reduced refining capacity in the US under previous Democratic presidents. But the experts we talked to say, you know, diesel would not be at record prices if not for the Iran war and the constraints on shipping in the Middle East.

When most people fill up at a gas station, they're not choosing diesel to put into their car, for example. But the cost of diesel has this huge far-reaching sort of rippling economic impact for people. Why is it so important and what does it touch? Diesel powers the trucks that we use to deliver, you know, products in across the country. Diesel powers the the tractors that farmers use to, you know, plant and and harvest their crops and also deliver their crops to silos and grain elevators. and diesel and its close derivative uh home heating oil, you know, heats homes and businesses particularly in the northeast uh US and Alaska in rural areas.

So, you know, when the price of diesel goes up, the the price of home heating oil goes up. Uh and that means, you know, heating bills go up for homeowners and businesses that rely on home heating oil for their heat. We're just over 40 days away from the midterm elections here in the US. You've dug into how diesel and diesel prices factor into these races. Take us around the map of battleground states. What did you find?

Well, let's let's start with farming because the price of diesel has a huge impact on agriculture. Uh particularly now because we're heading into to harvest season. So farmers have no choice but to to buy diesel to power their combines uh to get in the harvest. So the farm states that have toss up Senate races right now include Iowa and Nebraska and Kansas. And the issue of you know high diesel prices are paramount in those Senate races because of how important agriculture is to those states economies.

And it's also very impactful in Maine and Alaska right now. mostly because of the the price of home heating oil um reaching record levels. In fact, the the price in Maine um last week was just posted to be 74% higher than this time last year, right at the time that, you know, a lot of homeowners are are filling up their fuel tanks for the winter. And we're being told that, you know, some customers are holding off on filling up their their tanks, you know, hoping that the price will come down.

But, you know, winter's coming and they're not going to be able to hold off forever and have to bite the bullet to pay the higher cost for home heating oil. Another area um is Alaska and Maine fishing um because diesel powers the the boats that the fishing industry needs. The Democratic candidate in Alaska, Mary Pollah, um has cited the impact of diesel costs on the fishing industry. Every day that diesel is getting more and more expensive for our fishermen, more and more expensive to make ice, more and more expensive for our processors.

We need a break here. We need some help. We need somebody in DC fighting to lower our costs, not to jack up our costs.

And we're seeing this anywhere where, you know, fishing is is a big part of the the state economy. And this is having a big impact on um the Senate races in Maine and Alaska in particular because they're both toss-up races. And the candidates are talking about the the price of home heating oil and diesel in those states and and blaming the Republicans uh who control uh Congress and the White House right now for creating the circumstances that are pushing up the price of diesel and home heating oil.

The fix that candidates, members of Congress, and President Trump is calling for and whether it could work. That's after the break.

I've said, "Let's not send out the diesel. We make a lot of diesel." Speaking at the United Nations this week, President Trump said his administration was considering a diesel export ban. And today, Politico reported new details on the plan the White House is developing, which if imposed, would ban US diesel exports for 90 days. The idea has been floated by some US lawmakers and midterm candidates who hope that keeping US diesel for domestic consump