{"id":12573,"date":"2026-05-06T11:17:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/05\/06\/trump-has-a-nuclear-option-to-slash-gas-prices-it-could-backfire-badly-cnn\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T11:17:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:17:05","slug":"trump-has-a-nuclear-option-to-slash-gas-prices-it-could-backfire-badly-cnn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/05\/06\/trump-has-a-nuclear-option-to-slash-gas-prices-it-could-backfire-badly-cnn\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump has a \u2018nuclear option\u2019 to slash gas prices. It could backfire badly – CNN"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

New York<\/span>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/span> <\/cite><\/p>\n

The United States produces so much oil that millions of barrels of crude are sent overseas every single day. <\/p>\n

Those US barrels have become extremely valuable to the rest of the world since the war in the Middle East trapped\u202fnearly 1 billion barrels of oil in the Gulf.<\/a> Asian and European nations have scrambled to replace the crude sidelined by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, causing demand for US oil exports to soar. <\/p>\n

This raises an obvious question: If the United States has enough oil to ship overseas, why not keep more crude, gasoline and jet fuel at home to drive down rapidly rising prices? <\/p>\n

After all, the United States sends more crude abroad than it imports. And some other countries, including China<\/a>, began limiting their own oil exports weeks ago. <\/p>\n

Industry insiders acknowledge that export controls could keep a lid on prices in the short term. In the long term, however, they worry such restrictions would crush US refiners and ruin America\u2019s reputation as a reliable supplier of energy, potentially plunging its allies into recession. <\/p>\n

The Trump administration says cutting back exports isn\u2019t an option on the table. <\/p>\n

Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have repeatedly made public and private reassurances that the White House is not considering restrictions on exports. <\/p>\n

But some lawmakers hope the White House reconsiders. <\/p>\n

Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna recently reintroduced\u202f legislation<\/a>\u202fthat would\u202fban the export of gasoline<\/a>\u202fduring periods of high gas prices. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s common sense,\u201d Khanna\u202ftold Fox Business<\/a>\u202flast month. \u201cWhy would we be sending our oil overseas when Americans are getting fleeced at the pump?\u2026 We should have our oil supply for Americans\u2026 That would bring down the price.\u201d <\/p>\n

Although banning energy exports might score political points, some analysts warn it will not have the desired outcome. <\/p>\n

The problem is that America\u2019s intricate energy supply chain relies on a mix of imports and exports. Matt Smith, lead oil analyst at Kpler, stresses that while the United States is a net oil exporter, it\u202fstill imports 6.5 million barrels of crude per day<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/picture> <\/div>\n

America\u2019s aging refiners have already maxed out on the light, sweet crude that is produced by the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico. They often need to combine that US shale oil with heavier blends found in Canada, the Middle East and Latin America to churn out gasoline and diesel. The extra US crude gets exported. <\/p>\n

In other words, the United States is not an energy island unto itself. <\/p>\n

Banning energy exports could easily backfire, industry experts say. <\/p>\n

Bob McNally, founder and president of Rapidan Energy Group and a former energy adviser to President George W. Bush, said any price decline caused by export restrictions would be temporary. The concern is that forcing refiners to run on US oil alone could deplete their profit margins. <\/p>\n

\u201cRefiners will make less gasoline, and that will eventually lead to higher prices,\u201d McNally said. <\/p>\n

Yet McNally isn\u2019t ruling out export limits if the energy crisis intensifies, as he suspects it will. His firm sees a 35% chance that prices spike high enough that the Trump administration implements petroleum restrictions in some form. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in the White House when the walls close in. This is a terrible idea, but it might be difficult to resist as the price goes up,\u201d McNally said. <\/p>\n

Indeed, the worst energy supply shock in history has some analysts rethinking long-held beliefs about export controls. <\/p>\n

Vikas Dwivedi, global energy strategist at Macquarie Group, said a temporary ban on oil and petroleum product exports would likely crash US gasoline and oil prices, easing pressure on consumers just in time for the midterms. He argued refiners could overcome problems caused by losing access to heavier foreign crude. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019m saying this. For my entire career, I would have said, \u2018A ban won\u2019t work. Don\u2019t do it. This is nonsense,\u2019\u201d said Dwivedi. <\/p>\n

Robert Auers, manager of refined fuels at RBN Energy, said banning oil and petroleum product exports could temporarily lower gas prices \u2013 but at a huge cost in the long run. <\/p>\n

Auers argued that it would be a \u201ctotal mess\u201d that forces refiners to scale back production \u2013 and some would even permanently go out of business. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou could bring prices way down next week. But that impact would fade over time. A year from now, prices might not be any different than today,\u201d said Auers. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/picture> <\/div>\n

And Big Oil would surely fight such a move. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis would be very bad policy and there would be very forceful and vocal opposition from the industry,\u201d an oil-and-gas source told CNN. <\/p>\n

Chevron CEO Mike Wirth warned this week that export bans, price caps and similar policies won\u2019t work. <\/p>\n

Wirth, speaking<\/a> at the Milken Institute\u2019s Global Conference, said such policies might be \u201cwell-intentioned,\u201d but history shows they have \u201cunintended consequences that can make things worse, not better.\u201d <\/p>\n

Limiting the supply of US oil to the rest of the world would harm the global economy, and that would likely blow back on the United States. <\/p>\n

Dwivedi said global prices of oil, gasoline, jet fuel and other energy products would go \u201ccrazy high.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cSuddenly, you could be risking a global recession. And we can\u2019t be insulated from that. It would come full circle,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Auers predicted severe retaliation, including potentially tariffs, against the United States. \u201cYou would start a whole new trade war \u2013 worse than last year\u2019s,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

And some of those sky-high global prices would get paid by US allies in Europe and Asia \u2013 nations that are relying on American energy during a crisis. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe would permanently ruin our reputation as an arsenal of energy,\u201d McNally said. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 The United States produces so much oil that millions of barrels of crude are sent overseas every single day. Those US barrels have become extremely valuable to the rest of the world since the war in the Middle East trapped\u202fnearly 1 billion barrels of oil in the Gulf. Asian and European nations have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}