States are taking matters into their own hands to fight high gas and diesel prices

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

As the Trump administration deliberates how to fight historically high gas and diesel prices, a growing number of US states are taking matters into their own hands.

The state-level action has taken place across the country in recent days and weeks, spanning red states like Texas and Oklahoma, blue states including California and purple states such as Georgia.

State officials say they hope to provide temporary relief ahead of the midterms to drivers, farmers and truckers frustrated by sky-high fuel prices, which are driven in large part by the Iran war.

Ohio, a major battleground in the elections next month, became the latest to take action on Thursday. Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, signed a bill into law suspending the state’s gasoline and diesel taxes for 90 days beginning Sunday. Both gubernatorial candidates – Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and Democrat Amy Acton – pushed for the tax break.

The state actions underscore the pressure on local officials from voters who want lower energy prices.

Gas prices are above $4.40 a gallon nationally, and they have never been this high at this time of year — not even in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine. Prices for diesel, the workhorse fuel that powers trucks, tractors, trains and construction vehicles, hit all-time highs last month but has since backed away a bit.

Analysts say the states’ moves could help American consumers and businesses on the margin, but none of the actions will drastically change the reality of high prices. The main problem is that the Iran war, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and export restrictions in China have spurred a global shortage of refining.

“States are taking actions where they have control, but they can’t control the events in the Middle East and Russia – and those events are much bigger drivers of prices than temporary relief steps states can offer,” said Andy Lipow, president of consulting firm Lipow Oil Associates. “If you want to lower prices, end the Iran conflict.”

Oil exports out of the Middle East have raced back to life in recent weeks , thanks in part to US military escorts. And President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that the war will end soon and that gas prices will plummet shortly after.

But elected officials, particularly Republicans, are growing increasingly antsy to demonstrate they are doing something as the midterm elections near.

Are you struggling with high diesel and gas prices? Share your story

Ohio’s bill will temporarily suspend its gas and diesel fuel taxes of 38.5 cents a gallon and 47 cents a gallon, respectively. The measure is estimated to save drivers a total of $725 million over the next three months.

Other states have also taken various actions to give drivers some tax relief.

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican, renewed a pause on Wednesday for another month to give “Hoosier families additional breathing room to make ends meet while protecting funding for state and local infrastructure projects,” according to a statement from the governor’s office. Braun first suspended gasoline taxes in the spring.

And in Georgia, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency Monday, suspending the taxes on gas and diesel fuel for a month. Kemp also signed legislation in the spring temporarily pausing the levies, which resumed in early June.

Kentucky and Illinois, which both have Democratic governors, also took measures earlier this year to temporarily lighten gas levies. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear temporarily reduced gas taxes by 10 cents in the spring and blocked a small increase in the tax that would have kicked in on July 1. And in June, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker delayed a scheduled 1.3-cent increase in the gas tax for six months.

A few congressional lawmakers from both parties have also floated suspending the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents, though their efforts did not go far on Capitol Hill.

Although suspending state gas taxes is a good talking point for politicians, fuel and policy analysts say they are not that effective.

Drivers typically receive only between 60% and 80% of the savings from gas tax holidays, with the rest captured by gas stations and other players in the supply chain, said Alex Arnon, director of policy analysis at Penn Wharton Budget Model, an initiative that has studied the impact of gas tax suspensions.

In the current highly uncertain environment, Arnon expects savings will be on the lower end for drivers.

“Everybody along the supply chain has both an incentive and more opportunity to siphon off a little bit of the savings from that gas tax holiday,” he said.

Also, reducing gas taxes only spurs demand without increasing supply, which can end up raising prices, said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.

“The market is telling you it’s in distress, something’s wrong,” he told CNN. “The way to respond to that shouldn’t be, ‘Oh, hey, let’s cut the price so Americans don’t have to make tough decisions.’”

To help truckers cope with the diesel spike, Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Nebraska and other states have taken steps to boost red-dyed diesel. Red-dyed diesel is the same as regular diesel. It’s just untaxed and dyed to classify it for off-road use only, such as farming.

By allowing red-dyed diesel to be used on highways, state officials can save truckers some money. But the savings are relatively modest.

“It’s all the same diesel,” Lipow said. “They’re hoping to save truckers and farmers some money that can ultimately be passed through to consumers.”

Another frequent step state officials take to help lower fuel costs is allowing refineries to switch to cheaper winter-blend fuel earlier than usual.

California and Michigan have both taken this measure in recent months. Most states east of the Rocky Mountains have already switched over to the cheaper winter fuel.

The move can help save drivers in California about 25 cents a gallon, Lipow said, though he noted the famously expensive state is grappling with refinery outages that could offset the savings.

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

在特朗普政府考虑如何应对历史高位的汽油和柴油价格之际，越来越多的美国州开始自行采取行动。

近几周来，全国各地都发生了州级行动，包括德克萨斯州和俄克拉荷马州等红色州，加利福尼亚州等蓝色州，以及佐治亚州等摇摆州。

州政府官员表示，他们希望在中期选举前为因燃油价格高企而感到沮丧的司机、农民和卡车司机提供暂时的缓解措施，而燃油价格高企很大程度上是由伊朗战争造成的。

俄亥俄州是下个月选举中的关键战场州，该州于周四采取了最新行动。共和党籍州长迈克·德瓦恩签署了一项法案，暂停该州汽油和柴油税90天，自周日起生效。两位州长候选人——共和党人维韦克·拉马斯瓦米和民主党人艾米·阿克顿——都力推这项减税措施。

州政府的举措凸显了选民对地方官员施加的压力，选民希望降低能源价格。

全国汽油价格已超过每加仑4.40美元，而且在每年的这个时候都从未如此之高——即使是在2022年俄罗斯入侵乌克兰之后也没有。柴油价格，这种卡车、拖拉机、火车和工程车辆的主要燃料，上个月也达到了历史新高，但此后有所回落。

分析人士指出，各州的举措或许能在一定程度上帮助美国消费者和企业，但这些措施都无法从根本上改变高油价的现状。主要问题在于，伊朗战争、俄乌冲突以及中国的出口限制加剧了全球炼油短缺。

“各国都在力所能及的范围内采取行动，但它们无法控制中东和俄罗斯的局势——而这些局势对油价的影响远大于各国能够提供的临时性纾困措施，”利波石油咨询公司总裁安迪·利波表示。“如果想要降低油价，就应该结束伊朗冲突。”

近几周来，中东石油出口迅速恢复，部分原因是得益于美国军方的护送。唐纳德·特朗普总统也多次表示，战争很快就会结束，油价也会随之暴跌。

但随着中期选举临近，民选官员，尤其是共和党人，越来越急于证明他们正在有所作为。

您是否正为高昂的柴油和汽油价格而苦恼？分享您的故事吧！

俄亥俄州的这项法案将暂时中止征收每加仑汽油38.5美分和每加仑柴油47美分的燃油税。预计该措施将在未来三个月内为司机节省总计7.25亿美元。

其他州也采取了各种措施，为司机提供一些税收减免。

印第安纳州州长、共和党人迈克·布劳恩周三再次暂停征收汽油税，为期一个月。州长办公室在一份声明中表示，此举旨在“为印第安纳州的家庭提供更多喘息之机，以维持生计，同时保障州和地方基础设施项目的资金”。布劳恩于今年春季首次暂停征收汽油税。

在佐治亚州，共和党州长布莱恩·坎普周一宣布该州进入紧急状态，暂停征收汽油和柴油税一个月。坎普今年春天也签署了一项法案，暂时中止了这些税收，这些税收已于六月初恢复征收。

肯塔基州和伊利诺伊州的州长均为民主党人，这两个州今年早些时候也采取措施暂时降低汽油税。肯塔基州州长安迪·贝希尔 (Andy Beshear) 在春季暂时将汽油税降低了 10 美分，并阻止了原定于 7 月 1 日生效的小幅增税。伊利诺伊州州长 JB·普里茨克 (JB Pritzker) 则在 6 月份将原定 1.3 美分的汽油税增税计划推迟了六个月。

两党的一些国会议员也曾提出暂停征收每加仑 18.4 美分的联邦汽油税，但他们的努力在国会山并没有取得多大进展。

虽然暂停征收州汽油税对政客来说是一个很好的谈资，但燃油和政策分析人士表示，这种做法效果并不理想。

宾夕法尼亚大学沃顿商学院预算模型政策分析主任亚历克斯·阿农表示，司机通常只能获得燃油税假期节省金额的 60% 到 80%，其余部分则被加油站和供应链中的其他参与者攫取。该模型是一项研究燃油税暂停影响的计划。

在当前高度不确定的环境下，阿农预计司机们的节省金额将比较低。

他说：“供应链上的每个人都有动力也有更多机会从燃油税假期中分一杯羹。”

GasBuddy石油分析主管帕特里克·德哈恩表示，降低汽油税只会刺激需求而不会增加供应，这最终可能会导致价格上涨。

“市场正在发出警告，表明它处于困境，出了问题，”他告诉CNN。“应对这种情况的正确方法不应该是，‘哦，嘿，让我们降价，这样美国人就不用做出艰难的决定了。’”

为了帮助卡车司机应对柴油价格飙升，德克萨斯州、阿拉巴马州、俄克拉荷马州、内布拉斯加州和其他一些州已采取措施推广红色柴油。红色柴油与普通柴油成分相同，只是免税并染色，以便仅用于非道路用途，例如农业。

允许在高速公路上使用红色柴油，可以为卡车司机节省一些费用。但节省的金额相对有限。

“用的都是同一种柴油，”利波说。“他们希望帮卡车司机和农民省钱，最终把这些钱让利给消费者。”

为帮助降低燃料成本，州政府官员经常采取的另一项措施是允许炼油厂比往常更早地改用更便宜的冬季混合燃料。

加利福尼亚州和密歇根州近几个月都采取了这项措施。落基山脉以东的大多数州已经改用价格更低的冬季燃料。

利波表示，此举可以帮助加州司机每加仑汽油节省约 25 美分，但他指出，以油价高昂著称的加州正面临炼油厂停产的困境，这可能会抵消节省的费用。