Republicans are falling in line with the counterproductive idea of banning U.S. diesel exports. This will only incentivize our domestic suppliers to produce less diesel now and in the future. But because of the chemistry involved, producing less diesel also means producing less gasoline. And that means higher prices for everyone who doesn’t have a diesel vehicle.

“All the things equal, lower diesel prices would incentivize refiners to reduce their production,” Goldman’s Daan Struyven on Bloomberg. “And because gasoline and diesel are usually produced together as a bundle with some flexibility, it would likely reduce the availability of gasoline.”

This chart from S&P shows that a diesel export ban would flip the US from a net exporter to an importer of gasoline, which would expose the coasts to higher world prices:

An emergency action to lower diesel prices that raises gasoline prices would be political malpractice. It would make much more sense to suspend the renewable energy (ethanol) blending requirements and the federal fuel taxes of 18.4 cents a gallon gasoline and 24.4 cents a gallon on diesel, which would lower prices of both without disrupting markets.