YHK - yet another hacker news clone

US tells France and Germany to release diesel stocks or face US export ban

47 points geox 2 hours ago 45 comments

hollow-moe 1 hour ago | parent

Oh my, by all means please do!

ShadowOfThePit 1 hour ago | parent

Why? Why is that good? What if supply stays low and prices stay high? What if the stockpile is still depleted in two or three years, and Russia takes the chance to invade while Europe has nothing to power their industry and tanks?

Why must the energy transition be "move fast and break everything" while the industry and households suffer under the strain of high prices?

It could have been so smooth, it could have gone so well, but the world went mad...

ShadowOfThePit 1 hour ago | parent

Non-Paywalled article: https://politicstoday.org/us-presses-france-and-germany-to-r...

Why doesn't he ban exports right away, forcing Europe to use their stockpiles anyways?

Is it that he can't? So the entire threat is moot?

Is he thinking of using the Graham bill to threaten +100% tarrifs for buying Russian gas?

westpfelia 1 hour ago | parent

If he bans exports the EU is screwed over. It will destroy what little good will the EU has towards the US. It will cause the EU to double down on Chinese partnerships and you will see the EV transition happen faster ESPECIALLY in the Semi Truck space.

Yokolos 43 minutes ago | parent

No, the US is screwed over. From what I've read, many areas in the US are completely reliant on imports because of how the current logistics and production/processing chain/infrastructure is setup. And the market disruption caused by an export ban would wreak complete havoc in those regions and cause significant price spikes starting from diesel and then rippling out to anything reliant on it.

This is why he hasn't done it yet. Everybody in the US with money at stake called him and told him it was a stupid idea.

lurk2 32 minutes ago | parent

> From what I've read, many areas in the US are completely reliant on imports because of how the current logistics and production/processing chain/infrastructure is setup.

Which areas are you referring to?

fabian2k 38 minutes ago | parent

As far as I understand, the US produces more Diesel than it consumes. A blanket export ban would mean that refineries would have to shut down because they can't get rid of all the Diesel they produce. But since refineries produce more than one product, this would affect other oil products as well. That doesn't sound like a situation you want.

But this is based on my simplistic understanding of how this works, I'm really not sure about the details.

hvb2 27 minutes ago | parent

> Why doesn't he ban exports right away, forcing Europe to use their stockpiles anyways?

Because big oil doesn't like that.

And as others said, diesel is just one product. If you want to keep producing the other products you'll have to sell or store that diesel. The capacity is too much for the US alone and storing all excess capacity isn't feasible. So if he does it, there will be a surplus which means big oil will lose a large amount of money.

GuestFAUniverse 1 hour ago | parent

Since when is bullying other countries alright? Those are strategic reserves for real emergencies. To keep the show going _at all_.

What a fucking narcistic war monger clique.

InsideOutSanta 1 hour ago | parent

But you don't understand, the midterms are an emergency!

GuestFAUniverse 48 minutes ago | parent

But he, his clan and all sycophants made a ton of money already. What more? Make everyone's life even more miserable? Gold plate even more useless stuff?

Can they just sodd off to a remote island with a golden palace? /Mars/ would be a good place. "One way ticket" playing as part of the OST. Shoot the whole clique with a lot of gold bars to the red planet.

Escapado 13 minutes ago | parent

> Gold plate even more useless stuff

Bingo! Dragon fever knows no bounds. I truly think there is no bottom in the pit of depravity.

david38 1 hour ago | parent

Since there has never been a time in history when this hasn’t happened

expedition32 1 hour ago | parent

This is the real heart of the problem.

Trump literally CANNOT admit he made a mistake.

Nixon may have been a corrupt sleaze ball but he knew he had to get out of Vietnam because it was destroying America and so he did.

Ylpertnodi 57 minutes ago | parent

I thought the press lost the war.

gadders 10 minutes ago | parent

Lol. Have you never heard of the EU? It bullies members and non-members on the regular.

sdcfgy 8 minutes ago | parent

Isn't that basically the whole point of an economic union?

So when Trump attacks individual countries like this, there can be a union level response?

kasperni 1 hour ago | parent

Yeah, he is just going to ban it anyway a month from now. So EU will be at the mercy of USA/Russia.

madspindel 23 minutes ago | parent

I think it's mostly Germany and Hungary? It's a shame that so many countries are/was dependent on Russian oil and gas. I'm happy to live in a country (Sweden) where we are independent and produce clean energy from NUCLEAR and hydro.

Frieren 1 hour ago | parent

The US has become a very short-term individual interest focused country. There is no long term vision for the country, there is no care for their own citizens, only today's president's interest matter. Tomorrow doesnt exists. screw-the-future is their warmongering motto.

This goes beyond the price of diesel. It is an attack on basic survivability of the nations that may depend on that reserves in the future.

Never vote for a death cult.

7373737373 16 minutes ago | parent

Also never vote for anyone who

- is incapable of apologizing

- has a history of abusive behavior

- doesn't have a sense of humor, especially at their own expense

"How to spot an idiot": https://youtube.com/watch?v=i2Lo8ChhOKU

gadders 8 minutes ago | parent

What about people with alzheimers?

thefz 1 hour ago | parent

Every day I wake up, open the news, and let out a slightly louder breath out of my nostrils at the latest boutade from Trump. Then I go out with my day because nothing he says is relevant in any way.

mschuster91 26 minutes ago | parent

> Every day I wake up, open the news, and let out a slightly louder breath out of my nostrils at the latest boutade from Trump.

Agreed with you there, and it leaves me ever more exhausted.

> Then I go out with my day because nothing he says is relevant in any way.

Unfortunately, when the US sneezes, Europe gets hit by a tornado. Ever since this godforsaken war against Iran, gas prices were unpredictable and unsustainably high.

It would have been one thing, had the US properly conducted the war - aka, had they prepared their allies in the region, had they asked us to join the fun, and committed ground troops. But they didn't, they caught all of us off guard, completely botched the execution, and we had to deal with the fallout.

fabian2k 11 minutes ago | parent

The Iran war is a particularly stupid shitshow, but there was no way to "properly" wage this war. There's a reason previous US administrations didn't do this, and it wasn't because they were Iran-friendly.

Committing ground troops would be necessary to actually achieve objectives here. But that would lead the US into a very different, probably even larger shitshow.

clauderoux 38 minutes ago | parent

In France, we see a move to buy second hand EV, which up to now were a very hard sell on the car market. When a liter of petrol costs up to €2.3, it is pretty obvious that people will think twice in keeping their thermic car any longer.

maelito 13 minutes ago | parent

Diesel can even cost 3 €.

Also, 50 000 "leasing social" cars will soon appear on the 2nd hand market.

gadders 11 minutes ago | parent

Probably harder to set on fire outside schools as well.

Skwid 3 minutes ago | parent

Entirely off-topic, but in British english the usual term would be combustion vehicle, or more commonly just Petrol/Diesel.

A thermic vehicle sounds delightfully whimsical to my ear, like some sort of victorian steam car.

For some reason the form thermic is almost never used in English, instead preferring Thermal with only one exception I'm aware of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_lance

GJim 35 minutes ago | parent

Mango Mussolini is afraid he will suffer at the US midterm elections, hence bullying Europe to use thier stratigic reserves (during a war he started!) to help lower diesel prices in the USA.

The USA has lost the plot.

slow_typist 24 minutes ago | parent

Europe hasn’t grown some balls yet and I am afraid they will roll over again.

modo_mario 12 minutes ago | parent

I'd predict the same but france had partial fuel shortages recently (maybe still?) and there's a limit to what they can do without torches getting lit.

sofixa 10 minutes ago | parent

European economies are suffering (and have been since COVID), and russia is a much bigger threat to deal with, so the EU is always trying to take the big boy role and be friendly to get as much as possible. Confrontation would be disastrous for us, and it would be cutting our noses to spite the orange guy who wouldn't get it anyways. When red lines were about to be crossed (Greenland), there was a strong response, but for the rest it's easier to handwave

Meanwhile more strategic autonomy is being built up, but it will take years; when one of Trump's sons is president, we'll be in a better position to properly stand up.

mesk 35 minutes ago | parent

And the question is: Who cares ?

harrouet 32 minutes ago | parent

History will remember this administration as a traitor to Europe and its values. Right when the US needs allies.

x______________ 13 minutes ago | parent

> History will remember this administration as a traitor to Europe and its values. Right when the US needs allies.

Time fixes everything. Give it a few generations and the world will be inhibited by new humans who will carry on doing what life demands of them, unfazed by today's events.

x______________ 4 minutes ago | parent

Wait, this is not true? Tell me that Germany is no longer involved in world economics because of the events in the 1940's. Or the Usa in 45, or Mongolia terroritial claims during the Khan era, or any other world event in the past that is no longer relevant.

Please elaborate.

GJim 3 minutes ago | parent

If you think the USA will ever be trusted again as they were post-1945, you are very sadly mistaken.

Maybe some trust will be restored in a generations time, but there is no going back to the post-1945 hegemony which saw the USA, and the westen world, all benefit so much.

neuroelectron 21 minutes ago | parent

it all comes down to if they have Epstein files on the powerful people running Germany and France

NalNezumi 21 minutes ago | parent

Buffoonery of Trump is not a surprise at this point but I am really struggling to understand Scott Bessent in this administration.

I've been reading that he has broadly been considered a pretty competent (if not vicious) candidate for the Treasury, but this statement and that silly "Todo: buy Yen" note childish stunt I'm getting the impression that he's either some gang boss side guy that whisper macho sounding dumb ideas to the boss, or just a Trump doormat, or some 5D finance chess player that I'm just too uninformed to understand.

Anyone that could enlighten me here?

theaustein7 18 minutes ago | parent

Is this a temporary pause on issuing new tariff threats?

maelito 14 minutes ago | parent

We're a colony.