Oil Industry Pushes Back On Limiting Diesel Exports

[MUSIC PLAYING] Harvey Weinstein is sentenced to 15 years in prison. Plus, President Trump is considering restricting diesel exports, sending the oil industry into term oil. They've always known that if President Trump had to pick between farmers and oil executives, it was going to be the farmers. That he was going to support. So the idea that is here is something they're accepting now. And Metta Stockpric is jumping on the popularity of its new AI agent Muse. And investors want to see what Mark Zuckerberg says about the app at Metta's conference today. It's Wednesday, September 23. I'm Alex Osula for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines, and business stories that move the world today. [MUSIC PLAYING] We start today's show in New York, where disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein was just sentenced to 15 years in prison. Last year, a jury convicted him of a criminal sexual act for forcing oral sex on a production assistant two decades ago. His legal team plans to appeal. And we're exclusively reporting that federal prosecutors in Manhattan have opened a probe into Jeffrey Epstein's longtime lawyer and accountant who are now executors of his estate. The journal couldn't determine what charges are being explored. During prosecutors' interviews of potential witnesses, they described the men's roles in legal entities that allegedly helped conceal Epstein's activities. The interviews also dealt with the two men's handling of financial and legal matters involving young women. Darren Indyke, Epstein's lawyer and Richard Khan has accountant, have previously said they didn't know Epstein was engaged in sex trafficking. They have denied being complicit in or having knowingly facilitated any crimes. And they've said none of the women ever reported to them that they were being sexually abused. A lawyer for Khan referred to the prior statement, and a lawyer for Indyke didn't respond. Justice Department spokeswoman said that they don't comment on whether an investigation exists. [MUSIC PLAYING] Iran's president says the country is open to negotiations with the US to end the war, but that Tehran will never surrender to what he called Washington's bullying. In a speech at the United Nations General Assembly this morning, Masoud Psezhkyan responded to President Trump's threats to annihilate Iran. Through a translator, he said that Tehran is ready for dialogue and diplomacy, called out President Trump by name, and said Iran would not accept Trump's quote, "language of force." That the resistance of the Iranian people will only increase in the face of sanctions, increase pressure, increase bullying. We will never bow our head or bend at the knee. Psezhkyan also said that Iran won't give up its right to pursue its nuclear program, which he said was purely peaceful and not aimed at building weapons. The Iran war has pushed up energy prices, as we all know, and diesel in particular. The national average for a gallon of diesel is more than $6.50, that's up nearly a dollar over the past month. Yesterday, we reported that President Trump is considering restricting diesel exports from the US, sending oil executives and lobbyists rushing to register their opposition. Today, Energy Secretary Chris Wright hinted at a gentler regulatory touch of voluntary cap on exports instead of an outright ban. We're trying to avoid a blunt hammer of a government policy, understanding the complexity of refining. Wright's description was light on details, but our oil and gas reporter Ben-Wah Moran says that he expects the administration is going to take some action. Ben-Wah, what is the idea behind these restrictions on diesel exports? Why does the president think this is necessary? Well, the US is exporting a ton of diesel. It's become really one of the main providers of diesel to the world, something between 15 and 20%. And so the idea is that if you restrict shipments of that fuel, more of that fuel becomes available to US consumers. So at least in the short term, you would have more supplies and prices would come down. But folks are concerned that this could unleash cascade of unintended consequences, that if you restrict refiner's ability to sell their products abroad, they will just make less of it. Is this the oil industry's main objection to this restriction? Yes, that's saying that is going to hurt the industry, but it's also going to hurt the US eventually. Some regions of the US import diesel, like the East Coast, for instance. So if you reduce the number of barrels flowing to the global market, global prices are actually going to increase. And that's going to be reflected in the price that the East Coast pays for diesel from regions like Europe. And then as you push up the prices globally, it makes the global economy more expensive, fuels inflation. So this is how it could backfire. And yet Republicans are urging President Trump to put some of these restrictions in place, especially Republicans who are in tight races in the midterms. Are there specific candidates who want this? And why? How would this help them? Yeah, the way I think about it is kind of like Iowa versus Texas, right? Some of those districts are more competitive than the party thought. And you've seen some prominent Republicans calling on Trump to the export ban, like Chuck Grassley of Iowa, because some candidates there are facing tough questions from farmers, farmers of a lion diesel, and farmers are a very powerful constituency. So Trump seems to be leaning towards supporting farmers versus is oil allies, folks in the industry, are starting to realize that there is a political imperative coming from the White House that is colliding against their own interests. There's still a fight going on behind the scenes to try and control the extent of those restrictions, but I think the idea that is here is something they're accepting now. That was WSJ reporter, Benoit Morin. Thank you, Benoit. Thank you. And energy markets were on the rise today with international oil climbing almost 4% to more than $103 a barrel. And U.S. bond yields jump to their highest levels in nearly two decades. After Fed Governor Michael Barr said he expects the Fed will have to raise rates again and after a five-year treasury auction was met with weak demand. Meanwhile, stocks fell with the NASDAQ leading losses in the three major indexes. It closed down 1.1%. The Trump administration has invited Russian president Vladimir Putin to President Trump's resort in Miami this December to attend the G20 meeting. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told this to reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly today. Putin hasn't attended a G20 meeting since 2019, and he hasn't met in person with Trump since their summit in Alaska last year. Rubio's comments come as there's a diplomatic push from the US to end Russia's war with Ukraine. A spokesman for the Kremlin said Putin was willing to meet with Trump, but said that no clear decision had been made about the details of such a meeting. Coming up, met as new personal AI agent is taking off, more after the break. (upbeat music) Meta's new personal AI agent app is officially a hit. The app called Muse launched just two weeks ago, and it's been sitting at number one on Apple's US App Store since Friday. But Muse is already coming under scrutiny, and the company's path to ultimate domination and consumer AI is anything but assured. Megan Bapraski, who covers Meta for the journal, joins me now to discuss. Megan remind us what is Muse meant to be able to do and why is it taking off with users? - So Muse is an AI agent that can pay your bills for you. It can buy things online for you. It can email people for you. And so this is sort of the next step in AI evolution that we're seeing. - Have you tried it out yourself? - I have. I spent all weekend using it. I used it to pay my gas and electricity bill. I tried to have it buy things for me online, but I did get blocked from a few sites. I'm trying to get a cheaper car insurance rate, and so I used it to compare quotes across car insurance companies, and it told me my current rate was the cheapest. I then on Monday called a real person that gave me a cheaper rate. So in that case, the agent was actually not as helpful as a real human was. - You mentioned online shopping. In recent days, Amazon blocked Muse from shopping on its site. How big a deal is that for Meta and our other online retailers? Meta would say they've partnered with lots of other entities, partnered with Shopify, the exploring goods, like a bunch of different companies, but I think why the Amazon one is important is because so many people shop on Amazon. And so if you can't buy things on Amazon with your agent, that's one less thing it can do for you in my experience over the weekend. I also got blocked from Etsy. So we'll see what ends up happening here, but this could actually be a really big problem for them if they can't work out a solution with Amazon and some of the biggest retailers out there. - And this industry could get more crowded. And you're reporting, you say analysts expect that other big tech companies like OpenAI and Google could release similar products. How big a threat would that be to Meta's lead? - The time to market is really important here. So being the first one to get out there and put these agents on the market, users will start being familiar with them and there might be a stickiness there. That being said, Google has a lot of really easy integrations, right, if they come out with an agent, they could really easily hook it up to Gmail, to your calendar, to your whole Google suite of products. And so you could see that being something that's really appealing to people instead of having to download a Meta app. - Later today is Meta Connect, the company's big annual developer conference. What are you going to be listening for in CEO Mark Zuckerberg's keynote? - Today's are big conferences that usually focuses on her. hardware, but surely people are going to want to hear about Muse as well and what's going on with the agent. Executives have been tweeting, promising new features. One of the analysts I spoke to said to keep people engaged, Meta's just going to have to keep offering new things and give them a compelling reason to stay with Meta versus switching to a different agent when those come on the market. - That was WSJ reporter, Megan Bapraski. Thank you, Megan. - Thanks for having me. - Meta's stock rose 1% today and is up more than 20% since it launched Muse. Former Harvard president Claudine Gay is back in the classroom this semester. Gay resigned in 2024 after criticism of her response to campus anti-Semitism as well as allegations of plagiarism. But she still has tenure and it's common practice at Harvard for a president to return to the classroom. WSJ education reporter, Roshan Fernandez, says her class examines the purpose of American universities and the power struggles over their direction. - The course is called What Is a University and it asks students to engage in critical thinking about their own institution using Harvard itself as a case study so that students can understand how the higher education model is set up and why their college experience is the way it is. The class is doing readings which include a former Harvard president's lecture about gender at Harvard as well as the school's internal reports about its legacy of slavery and its report on Jeffrey Epstein's connections to the university. Also included in the readings is an address that Gay delivered last year about how donors are pushing for power and how that's threatening university independence. And for the final, students will propose a vision for an institutional reform or reinvention. - Gay is also set to teach two more classes in the spring, one on African-American politics and another on the politics of race, ethnicity and immigration. And that's what's news for this Wednesday afternoon. Today's show is produced by Anthony Bansi and Danny Lewis with supervising producer Tally R. Bell. I'm Alex O'Sulle for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening. (upbeat music)