Diesel hits $6.51 and Washington floats an export ban. Even the Energy Secretary says that "blunt tool" won't work.

Diesel averaged $6.51 a gallon Thursday, nearly $3 more than a year ago, according to AAA figures cited by The National News Desk. With the Iran war pinching supply and races tightening in diesel-powered GOP states like Iowa, Kansas and Ohio, some Republicans want to suspend fuel taxes or ban diesel exports. President Trump said at the UN, "I've said let's not send out the diesel." His own Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, said a "blanket ban" won't happen: "The blunt tool of banning diesel exports definitely doesn't work." Dozens of industry and business groups wrote that a ban would raise prices, not lower them. Here's the store-owner math. Refiners make more diesel than the country uses, and gasoline and jet fuel come out of the same process. Take away the export customer and refiners cut production, so you get less of everything. That's like fixing a shortage by padlocking the loading dock. The real relief runs through the Strait of Hormuz and refineries running full tilt, not a ban. Price fixes are popular in both parties. They rarely work. Markets don't vote.