Diesel Crisis: Could UK fuel rationing really happen?

With pump prices passing £2 a litre and national reserves dropping, could the diesel crisis force ministers to activate emergency fuel rationing? In this episode of The Business, Dominic O’Connell looks at what current diesel pricing means for the UK economy.

Joined by Helen Thompson, Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge, and Joe DeLaura, Global Energy Strategist at Rabobank, we examine whether low reserves and refining capacity threaten long-term economic growth. They break down how global supply disruptions, refinery closures, and changing government fiscal policy are squeezing margins across British business.

Crucially, they consider - could rationing truly be a reality in the United Kingdom?

“There's always that possibility because the Trump administration has shown that we will extract our pie from other countries. [The thinking is]: ‘If you don't buy American we'll stop selling you diesel, or maybe we'll do a diesel export ban for 90 days unless you release some of your strategic petroleum reserves, or unless you sell us something, or unless you let us have an aircraft base in your country,’” DeLaura says on the show. “Fortunately, I think the US and the UK have a pretty strong long-standing relationship, but the Administration has tested a lot of those long-standing relationships … it's the fact that we even have to ask this question that really concerns me.”

Thompson, however, said it is a risk, but not likely - though she pointed out that some Asian countries did have to take that path. “I think for that situation to materialise in Europe, there would have to be something else on top of what has already happened … [but] the Trump administration itself might bring that about,” she says on the program. “This administration's first port of call, in a way, in dealing with its supposed allies, is the energy weapon.”

More from the Times:

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Guests: Helen Thompson, Professor of Political Economy at Clare College, Cambridge Joe DeLaura, Global Energy Strategist at Rabobank

Presenter: Dominic O’Connell, Times columnist and Times Radio business correspondent

Producer: Hope Federico Executive Producer: Miriam Hall and Emily Leahy Photo: Getty Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.