Economics · Sep 29, 2026Louisiana Is Under a Diesel State of Emergency. Here’s What the Order Actually Does

Emergency Updates · Economics · September 28, 2026

All of Louisiana is under a state of emergency, but not because of a storm. Gov. Jeff Landry signed Executive Order JML 26-090 on September 22, declaring an emergency over the supply of diesel fuel, with the average price in the state at an all-time high of $6.03 a gallon.^[1] The order does not cap prices or send anyone money. It lets farm and timber trucks run on the cheaper, untaxed “dyed” diesel that growers already keep on their land, and it switches on the state’s price-gouging law for every seller in Louisiana. It runs from September 23 through October 22, 2026.^[1]

Key Facts

• The designated emergency area is the entire State of Louisiana, not a list of parishes.^[1]
• Farm trucks (Class 5) and forest-products trucks (Class 2) may legally burn red-dyed, off-road diesel on public roads. The normal state penalty is $10 a gallon or $1,000, whichever is greater.^[1]
• Off-road diesel costs about 44 cents a gallon less, because federal and state fuel taxes are not charged on it.^[5]
• The state waiver does not cover the federal penalty. The order told the Louisiana Department of Revenue to ask the IRS for matching relief within three business days.^[1]
• AAA’s Louisiana diesel average was $5.95 on September 28, down from its record of $6.03 set on September 21. A year ago it was $3.29.^[6]

The Story So Far

Louisiana is in the middle of its sugarcane, rice and soybean harvests, the months when farm equipment burns the most diesel, according to the order itself.^[1] The LSU AgCenter built its 2026 crop budgets on diesel at $2.85 a gallon. The retail price is now more than double that, and the governor’s office puts the gap at 112 percent.^[2]

Landry announced the order on September 23. “We have an opportunity to provide immediate relief, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” he said.^[2][9] Louisiana Farm Bureau President Richard Fontenot told Red River Radio, “We’ve probably doubled the expenses that we’ve had historically over the past 20 years with these fuel prices.”^[4] This site has tracked the national side of the same squeeze in its daily Fuel Price Watch.

Where It Applies

1. What the Order Actually Does, Section by Section

The order is four pages long. Here is each operative section in plain language, taken from the signed copy posted by the governor’s office.^[1]

What the order does not do matters as much. It sets no price cap, suspends no fuel tax for ordinary drivers, and offers no cash aid. A commuter, a delivery driver or a long-haul trucker gets nothing from Sections 3 and 4. The protection that reaches everyone is the price-gouging rule in Section 6, which the declaration puts into effect statewide.^[3]

2. Why Red Diesel Is the Relief

Dyed diesel is the same fuel as the diesel sold at the pump, colored red to mark it as off-road fuel. Farmers and loggers buy it tax-free for tractors, skidders and irrigation pumps. State law has long barred burning it in a licensed highway vehicle.^[2]

“This Executive Order suspends the penalty through October 22, 2026 for vehicles registered as Class 2 (Forest Products) or Class 5 (Farm Use) during this time of peak harvesting operations.”^[2]

The order’s reasoning is about supply as much as price. Farmers and timber harvesters already store dyed diesel on their farms and job sites. Letting their trucks use it, the order says, “will make fuel immediately available to those operations.”^[1] The Louisiana Farm Bureau puts the price gap at about 44 cents a gallon, the combined federal and state tax that off-road fuel skips.^[5]

3. The Numbers Behind the Emergency

The order lists its reasons in a series of “whereas” clauses, most of them drawn from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA):^[1]

• U.S. exports of distillate fuel (diesel and heating oil) hit 1,935,000 barrels a day in the week ending August 7, 2026, the highest weekly level since the EIA began the series in June 2010.
• In the week ending September 11, national distillate stocks were 107,859,000 barrels, or 29.9 days of supply. Both were the lowest the EIA has recorded for that week of the year.
• The EIA’s September outlook expects distillate stocks to stay below the 2021–2025 low “through much of 2027.”
• Louisiana’s average diesel price of $6.03 was up more than 80 percent from a year earlier.

The order also cites President Trump’s national energy emergency (Executive Order 14156, January 20, 2025) and a September 16, 2026, federal hours-of-service waiver for trucks hauling gasoline and diesel.^[1]

Louisiana diesel is still cheaper than the national average. AAA’s U.S. figure was $6.45 on September 28, a few cents under its own record of $6.53 set on September 22, the day Landry signed the order.^[7]

4. Who This Helps, and Who It Leaves Out

The relief goes to farm and timber operations with trucks registered as Class 2 or Class 5 and with dyed diesel on hand. That is the group the order was written for, during the weeks when its fuel bills peak.^[1] Farm Bureau’s Fontenot thanked the governor “for seeing the importance of agriculture to the state’s economy and taking decisive action to provide immediate relief.”^[5]

Two limits are easy to miss. First, the waiver is state-only. Dyed-diesel rules also exist under federal tax law, and the order itself asks the IRS for relief instead of granting it.^[1] Until the IRS answers, a farmer running red fuel on the highway is clear of the state penalty but not necessarily the federal one. Second, everyone else in Louisiana still pays pump prices near a record, and nothing in the order lowers them. For them, the only new tool is the price-gouging rule.

What’s Disputed or Unconfirmed

As of September 28, no public report says whether the Department of Revenue sent its request to the IRS, or whether the IRS has granted federal penalty relief. The order’s three-business-day deadline, counted from September 23, ran through September 28.

The size of the price jump is reported three ways. The governor’s office says 112 percent above the LSU budget figure,^[2] the Farm Bureau says 113 percent,^[5] and the order says more than 80 percent above a year earlier.^[1] The first two compare against a budget assumption and the third against last year’s pump price, so they are not in conflict. Red River Radio quoted AAA at $6.02,^[4] a day’s rounding off the $6.03 record. No official estimate of the total dollar savings to farmers has been published by the state.

How to Verify This Yourself

• Read the signed order: Executive Order JML 26-090 (PDF), gov.louisiana.gov.
• The governor’s announcement: gov.louisiana.gov/news/5178.
• Today’s Louisiana and parish-area diesel prices: AAA Louisiana gas prices.
• Weekly national diesel stocks and exports: the EIA’s Weekly Petroleum Status Report.

What You Can Do Right Now

• If you farm or log: check the class printed on the truck’s registration. Only Class 2 (forest products) and Class 5 (farm use) vehicles are covered. Keep fuel receipts and a simple log of which trucks ran on dyed diesel between September 23 and October 22.
• Watch the federal side: until the IRS grants relief, the state waiver does not protect you from a federal dyed-fuel penalty. Ask your fuel supplier or the Louisiana Department of Revenue whether an IRS answer has come back.
• Mark October 22: the waiver ends that day unless the governor extends it. Don’t carry red fuel in highway tanks past it.
• If a price looks like gouging: write down the station or seller, the date and time, and the price, and keep a photo of the sign and your receipt. Call the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection hotline at (800) 351-4889.^[8] Remember that increases tied to market swings or real added costs are allowed, so a price well above what nearby stations charge is the strongest complaint.
• Download the one-page checklist: Louisiana Diesel Emergency: What to Do (PDF).

Kemetic Minds Analysis

The order’s own reasons tell a pointed story. In the same paragraphs, the state cites record diesel exports and the lowest diesel stocks the EIA has recorded for this time of year. The fuel is being made; a record share of it is leaving the country. A governor can’t change that, so the order does what state law allows. It lets farmers burn fuel they already paid for, and it turns on a price-gouging rule. For growers in the middle of harvest, that is real help.

For the rest of Louisiana, the emergency mostly means a phone number to call if a station takes advantage. The key date is October 22. If prices are still near a record by then, look for whether the state extends the order, and whether the IRS ever answers.

References

1. Office of the Governor, State of Louisiana. “Executive Order Number JML 26-090: State of Emergency, Agriculture and Forestry Diesel Fuel Supply.” Signed September 22, 2026. gov.louisiana.gov (primary). ↩
2. Office of Governor Jeff Landry. “Lowering Fuel Costs, Governor Jeff Landry Takes Action to Help Louisiana Farmers and Timber Harvesters.” September 23, 2026. gov.louisiana.gov (primary). ↩
3. Deon Guillory, WAFB. “Landry declares emergency to help farmers, loggers cope with record diesel prices.” September 23, 2026. wafb.com (secondary). ↩
4. Jeff Ferrell, Red River Radio. “La. Gov. Declares State of Emergency Over Record High Diesel Fuel Prices.” September 24, 2026. redriverradio.org (secondary). ↩
5. Louisiana Farm Bureau News. “Governor Jeff Landry Declares Emergency, Allows Farmers and Loggers to Use Cheaper Off-Road, Dyed Diesel on Louisiana Roadways.” September 22, 2026. lafarmbureaunews.com (secondary). ↩
6. AAA. “Louisiana Average Gas Prices.” Accessed September 28, 2026. gasprices.aaa.com (primary data). ↩
7. AAA. “National Average Gas Prices.” Accessed September 28, 2026. gasprices.aaa.com (primary data). ↩
8. Louisiana Office of the Attorney General. Price gouging and consumer complaints. ag.state.la.us (primary). ↩
9. Ashlynn Baillio, WBRZ. “Gov. Landry declares state of emergency over high diesel prices ahead of harvest.” September 23, 2026. wbrz.com (secondary). ↩

Related Reading

• Fuel Price Watch — Evening, September 28, 2026
• Pipeline rupture near Jennings, Louisiana

Methodology: this report is based on a full reading of the signed executive order, the governor’s announcement, local coverage from WAFB, WBRZ and Red River Radio, the Louisiana Farm Bureau, and AAA’s published price averages as of September 28, 2026. Featured photo: sugarcane harvest near Houma, La., December 2021, U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (public domain).

Kemetic Minds Editorial Desk

Verified Newsroom

Primary-sourced investigative intelligence on civil rights, voting rights, federal policy, and consumer protection. Sourced from primary legal filings, government statistics, and direct field reporting.

Editorial Standards & Policy → Join Telegram Alerts