Washington Urges Europe to Release Emergency Diesel Reserves Amid High Prices

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Thursday called on European nations to release their diesel reserves, as the price of the vital fuel continues to soar.

Greer, who is hosting G20 trade ministers in Milwaukee, made the comments in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Oct. 1.

When asked whether the ban on U.S. exports of diesel that President Donald Trump has considered but not yet instituted had come up during the interview, Greer said that the issue had been raised on a “bilateral basis.”

Greer said that the Trump administration’s view is that this rise in prices is a “one-time spike” rather than “something longer,” adding that “the Europeans, they’re sitting on reserves of diesel, and our sense would be they should probably release some of these, if they’re feeling like they’re having a spike in Europe.”

Asked whether he had spoken with any of his European counterparts about the subject, Greer said he had a “very good conversation” with the French trade minister during which he “let him know that this is an idea that we’ve had in the U.S.,” and that “we’d love to have a collaborative response to this.”

Greer also said he would be meeting with European Union officials and other European counterparts today and would “carry the same message” to them.

The price of diesel has soared in recent months, hitting a record average of 2.24 euros per liter ($9.53 per gallon) across the EU, compared with 1.59 euros per liter ($6.77 per gallon) before the war erupted in the Middle East, according to European Commission data published on Thursday.

The Epoch Times contacted the European Commission for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Trump has said he is looking “very seriously” at moving forward with a ban on diesel exports to counter high prices in the United States, blaming recent Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries for driving up costs.

“That can oftentimes lead to a little bit of an increase on gasoline for cars, so we’re looking at it very seriously—we may do it,” Trump told Fox News on Sept. 27.

The price of U.S. diesel hit a record high of around $6.53 per gallon last week, though it has since fallen by about 12 cents per gallon, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).

Despite the fall in the price of diesel over the past few days, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’s quarterly energy survey, an anonymous poll of about 100 oil and gas companies, almost half of those surveyed expect it to remain above 2025 prices for a year.