Trump plans executive order seeking to bring down high diesel costs

Por Meredith Lee Hill and James Bikales — POLITICO – TOP Stories

President Donald Trump plans to announce Monday executive actions aimed at lowering the high fuel costs weighing on Republicans ahead of the midterms, according to three people familiar with the plans.

Trump plans to tout the moves during a campaign stop in Nebraska, where the high diesel costs and the president’s step to increase foreign beef imports ahead of November have riled farmers and ranchers at the peak of harvest season across deep-red and battleground states. The announcement would come after weeks of chaotic messaging on high diesel prices, punctuated on Friday by Trump saying he would not impose a diesel export ban after he repeatedly said he was considering the option.

The steps to be announced Monday include a Treasury Department review of certain taxes for diesel. The executive order would also direct states to do more to increase the availability of tax-exempt red-dyed diesel, used in farming, construction and other industries, and to urge that states waive certain fuel taxes, according to the people. The executive actions also include so-called non-enforcement of dyed diesel limitations. Some Republican governors have already taken similar steps on dyed diesel.

Trump officials have been preparing action around dyed diesel for more than a week. The Monday move comes as surging fuel prices — caused by the ongoing war against Iran as well as Ukrainian attacks against Russian refineries — have angered farmers and contributed to persistent inflation that is threatening Republicans’ hold on Congress in the November midterm elections. But some Republicans have opposed efforts to waive excise taxes on diesel as states use those revenues to pay for infrastructure projects such as road repairs.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told Fox News on Monday morning that Trump would make an “announcement” on additional short-term relief for farmers in Nebraska this afternoon, which she would also discuss during a stop in Iowa.

Ten states accounting for roughly a third of U.S. diesel sales had already taken steps to allow wider use of dyed diesel as of Friday, according to the research firm ClearView Energy Partners. Several states also waived taxes for diesel used in agricultural vehicles. The moves helped drop the average price of diesel to $6.32 a gallon on Monday, down 13 cents from the week before but still $2.63 higher than a year ago, according to AAA.

Federal action on dyed diesel could help reduce prices for freight truck drivers and others who operate on-road vehicles but would do little for farmers and construction equipment drivers who already have access to the tax-exempt fuel, Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for fuel price tracking website GasBuddy, said last week.

“It could save on-road users ~60c/gal,” De Haan said in a social media post on X. “But farmers already use dyed diesel and are still paying record prices. Taxes aren’t the problem, supply is.”

Denton Cinquegrana, chief oil analyst at Dow Jones Energy, said suspending fuel taxes can lead to short-term relief at the pump, but have long-term consequences for transportation infrastructure.

“When you’re not collecting taxes, you’re just kicking the can down the road, because you have to fix roads and stuff like that,” Cinquegrana said.

The dyed diesel idea is the lesser of some options the administration had been mulling, including an outright ban on exports. The policy negotiations were unusually public, as agriculture-state Republicans, including Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, pushed the administration to ban exports as high diesel prices were driving up the costs for farmers in their states.

Trump publicly endorsed an export ban multiple times in the past few weeks as Energy Secretary Chris Wright and White House energy advisers devised alternatives to lower prices. But on Friday, Trump ruled out a diesel export ban and said he never really considered one in the first place after Europe agreed to release fuel from its diesel reserves.

Exports of American diesel have steadily risen to record levels since the U.S. and Israel launched a war with Iran in February and Ukraine started targeting refineries in its war against Russia. Both wars have caused a significant decline in the amount of diesel available on the global market.

Dasha Burns and Mike Soraghan contributed to this report.

Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories