Bloomberg Surveillance · Wednesday, September 23, 2026
Amos Hochstein argues against an outright ban on diesel exports, suggesting instead a policy that ties export levels to domestic inventory levels. This approach, he contends, can manage prices and prevent economic damage without the negative market signals of a complete ban, drawing parallels to past policy decisions regarding crude oil exports and strategic reserve releases.
“I think that we have to look at a policy that ties our exports levels to inventories. And so when we have commercial inventories, and government inventories of diesel and gasoline at a certain level, you are free to export as much as you want. When they get reduced by a certain amount, exports get reduced by a certain amount.”
“It doesn't have to be a ban or no ban. We can actually limit volume of exports. We can restrict it to no increases in exports, et cetera. There are things that levers that we can do. And I think that we got into the wrong place of discussing this as a totally binary ban or no ban. And I think there's plenty of creative space.”
“The bad signal on an export ban is that it goes very quickly to production decreases, right? Not just at refineries, but at the oil side.”