Harvest season is expensive enough without adding higher fuel costs to your bill. Leaders from the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) are asking the Trump administration to provide farmers with temporary relief from high diesel prices. The request includes suspending the federal highway diesel tax for agricultural transportation.
AFBF President Zippy Duvall also asked the administration to temporarily waive federal penalties for farmers who need to use dyed diesel on highways during harvest. The federal highway diesel tax is 24.4 cents per gallon. Farmers using dyed diesel on highways can face a penalty of at least $1,000 or $10 per gallon, depending on the circumstances.
“Everything on the farm, from running tractors, combines, and irrigation equipment to transporting crops, livestock, and inputs requires diesel,” Duvall wrote in a letter to the president. You can read his full letter here.
Some states, including Louisiana, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Missouri, have already taken steps to ease state-level penalties for farmers using dyed diesel on highways. But Duvall says federal action is still needed to provide broader relief.
Meanwhile, diesel prices remain high. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports a national average of $6.38 per gallon, an increase of $2.62 from one year ago.
The Midwest average is even higher — $6.52 per gallon. That’s close to $3.00 more than at this time last year.
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