Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley urges President Donald Trump to ban diesel exports, warns fuel costs are ‘killing farmers’
Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley has called on President Donald Trump to impose an embargo on U.S. diesel exports, arguing that record-high fuel prices are devastating farm incomes as the country enters the peak of the fall harvest.
Chuck Grassley’s direct appeal to Donald Trump
Grassley posted on X, asking why Trump does not “put an embargo on diesel exports like presidents in the 70s put embargoes on ag products because food prices were inflated.”
He ended the post by writing that high diesel prices “ARE KILLING FARMERS INCOME,” along with the hashtags #cornwatch and #soybeanwatch.
In a follow-up post, Grassley cited Iowa diesel prices reaching $6.57 per gallon and again called for an embargo modeled on agricultural export restrictions from the 1970s.
Grassley also compared diesel exports with U.S. trade restrictions on China, writing that if the government can embargo semiconductor chips to China, it can restrict diesel exports to support American farmers and truckers. He said family farmers, whom he described as feeding and fueling the world, need the strongest possible footing regardless of global events.
Diesel prices reach record highs
According to AAA data, the national average price of regular gasoline was $4.4761 per gallon on Sunday, September 20, while diesel averaged $6.5050. That was up from roughly $3.70 a gallon a year earlier. In Iowa, diesel reached a record $6.29 per gallon — up from $5.35 the previous month.
A The Costs of War report by Jeff Colgan, director of Brown University’s Climate Solutions Lab, found that higher fuel costs linked to the Iran war have exceeded $40 billion, in addition to an estimated $29 billion in direct Pentagon military spending.
A separate real-time tracker from Brown’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs estimated that the war had added $100 billion in U.S. energy costs, with the figure rising by roughly $1 million every two minutes.
White House and Cabinet response
When Newsweek sought comment from the White House, it was directed to comments by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on the sidelines of a recent G20 Energy Ministerial gathering.
Burgum told CNBC that every option should remain on the table to lower diesel and gasoline prices but said he was not confident an export embargo would reduce costs. He also warned that a ban could backfire if other countries retaliate by restricting their own exports to the United States.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture told Newsweek that Trump recognizes diesel’s importance to American agriculture and that the administration is working to address what it called a temporary challenge, without ruling out any options.
Farmers describe the financial toll
John Boyd, founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association, told Newsweek that despite the Trump administration’s claims about controlling the Strait of Hormuz, $10 diesel would amount to losing the underlying economic war.
Boyd said struggling farmers are absorbing the higher costs directly, cutting into profit margins and, in some cases, forcing businesses to close.
Republican support builds on Capitol Hill
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he is open to examining an export ban as a possible response to high fuel costs.
Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett went further, introducing legislation that would ban diesel exports to foreign countries through January 2027.
A statement from Burchett’s office argued that diesel powers trucks, farm equipment and machinery that keep the economy moving, meaning higher fuel costs are ultimately passed on to consumers through higher prices for groceries, goods and services.
Industry pushes back
The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, a trade association representing oil refiners, warned in a recent fact sheet that preventing refiners from exporting or economically storing surplus diesel could lead some to reduce production.
The group said that could tighten supplies and push fuel prices higher rather than lower them.
It argued that export bans do not create more fuel for Americans and could instead reduce domestic production, weaken energy security and give market share to foreign competitors.
The broader context
Grassley’s proposal has gained some support among Republicans even as it faces resistance from within the Trump administration.
The United States exported nearly 400 million barrels of diesel last year, according to Energy Information Administration data. The global shortage linked to the Iran war has further encouraged exports, with nearly 50 million barrels shipped in a single month — an all-time high in records dating to 2009.