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Banning Diesel Exports Is Not the Answer, But If We Don't Save Some We're in Deep Trouble

America is not running out of diesel. We are running out of cushion. U.S. refineries are producing more than 5 million barrels a day of distillate fuel, mostly diesel. Americans use roughly 3.6 to 3.8 million barrels a day.

Recently, we have been exporting more than 1.3 million barrels a day, and in one week in August, exports reached a record 1.88 million barrels.

Meanwhile, U.S. inventories sit at about 13 percent, or roughly 16 million barrels, below the five-year seasonal average, and refineries are running at about 97 percent of capacity. There is little room to simply make more. U.S. inventories haven’t been this low in September in decades.

Inventories are America’s shock absorber. They protect us when a refinery goes down, a hurricane hits the Gulf Coast, or a pipeline fails. Heading into harvest and heating season, that cushion is thin.

War explains much of it. Drone strikes have damaged Middle East refineries and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Ukrainian strikes idled Russian refineries, and Russia banned diesel exports in July. China curtailed its own exports.

Buyers turned to American refiners. U.S. distillate exports ran 30 percent above their five-year average this spring. That........

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