The White House is still looking for ways to calm energy prices. It has also made one thing clear: it does not want to use one of the most dramatic tools available.

CNN reported that the administration has ruled out banning U.S. crude and gas exports. [1] CNBC confirmed the same point in its market and energy coverage. [2]

That decision is revealing because export restrictions are the kind of move governments talk about when they want to look maximally serious about domestic price pain. They are also the kind of move that quickly creates other distortions, angers producers, and complicates a country's role as supplier to allies and markets already in distress.

So the administration has, at least for now, chosen to keep that option off the board.

That does not lower prices. It only tells you something about the limits of the playbook.

If the war keeps moving through ports, fields, tankers, and insurance, Washington may end up with fewer politically attractive relief mechanisms than its public messaging implies. Friday's no-export-ban posture is the clearest sign yet that some of the biggest gestures are easier to imagine than to deploy.

-- KATYA VOLKOV, Moscow