The Trump administration is preparing a plan to ban exports of diesel for 90 days, despite splits inside the administration and with the oil industry, in a bid to bring down energy prices, reports Politico citing sources

Proposed export restrictions on refined products sit in a familiar but rarely used policy toolkit, and episodes of this kind have historically worked against the stated objective: the US is a structural exporter of diesel to Latin America and Europe, and cutting off that flow tends to depress domestic Gulf Coast prices while raising them abroad, widening the transatlantic diesel crack differential rather than easing global tightness. Precedent with export controls in other commodities shows the initial domestic price relief often fades as refinery runs adjust to weaker realised margins, reducing output of the very product being protected. The reported split between the administration and the industry matters, since prior energy interventions floated by this administration have sometimes been trial balloons that were diluted or abandoned after pushback, making the sourcing and the absence of a formal announcement a live question. The transmission channels to watch are the diesel crack and HO-WTI spreads, Gulf Coast refinery margins, freight and insurance on Atlantic basin product routes, and European diesel premia given Europe's reliance on imported barrels. Follow-ons are whether the plan reaches executive action, the 90-day scope and exemptions, and any retaliatory or substitution response from refiners and trading partners. As an unconfirmed report, the signal is directional and contingent on confirmation.