Why Trump’s Diesel Plan Will Bring Little Relief

Foreign Policy: “President Donald Trump authorized the deferral, through the end of the year, of federal taxes on diesel fuel used to power vehicles on roads and highways. (That tax revenue, like the gasoline tax, helps pay for highway maintenance.) His solution is to temporarily legalize the use of so-called red-dye diesel—a tax-free diesel flavor normally earmarked for off-road uses such as agriculture, mining, and logging—for use by truckers…”

“But there are a lot of problems with the hail-mary measure. For starters, it is only a deferral of those federal fuel taxes, not an outright suspension. Unless Congress passes legislation, at some point those deferred taxes will come due, which simply means storing up bigger bills and bigger accounting headaches for truckers down the road.”