KY ag commissioner applauds Trump’s move on untaxed diesel, but says Beshear can still act

Kentucky’s top agriculture official applauded Republican President Donald Trump for signing an executive order to defer federal taxes on red-dyed diesel through the end of the year, but says the state can still offer extra help to offset costs. 

Republican Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Shell sent a letter to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s office last week asking Beshear to temporarily suspend a prohibition on using red-dyed diesel on public roads during the fall harvest season. The untaxed fuel is commonly used on farmland and for agriculture purposes. 

Shell told the Kentucky Lantern the president’s order, signed Monday, goes further than what many farmers were asking for, as it allows on-road diesel vehicles to use red-dyed diesel, through the rest of the year. 

“What he’s trying to accomplish with it is the same thing we’re trying to accomplish, which is alleviating some of this harvest pressure that we’re under right now,” Shell said. 

Shell said farmers and others in the agriculture industry should look at this “as a short-term fix,” but a long-term solution is reopening the Strait of Hormuz and looking at domestic and global energy policy. 

“We need that strait open. We need domestic and global production of oil, especially towards diesel fuel right now, to increase and be more available,” Shell said. 

The price of diesel and gas have gone up in recent months because of global political conflicts, like Trump’s war in Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, where oil supplies are transported. 

A lot of Kentucky farmers already have tanks on their farm for red-dyed diesel, so Shell expects many of them to go into “immediate use.” He added that some issues after the executive order expires, like some of the dye still being in tanks once the prohibition goes back into effect, still needs to be worked out. 

U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, another Kentucky Republican and farmer, raised questions about facing fines for the dye in a tank and order expiration on X. Massie lost his primary this year to Trump-backed Ed Gallrein. 

As for his request to Beshear, Shell said he has not received a response from the governor’s office but was aware of a spokesperson’s statement that it was being reviewed, which had been reported by the Lantern. Shell said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins had offered to contact Beshear about the letter. 

Shell said he would still support Beshear pausing the state prohibition on untaxed diesel because the executive order only affects federal rules. Republican governors in other states like Texas, Nebraska and Louisiana, had previously paused their states’ restrictions. 

When Beshear reduced Kentucky’s gas sales tax earlier this summer, some Republicans in the legislature warned it could cost the state tax dollars for road repairs. Shell said the issue was a concern for the diesel tax, but said his office had specifically asked for use in “agriculture farm usage vehicles that are on the road during harvest season for this period of time” to minimize impact. 

“Gov. Beshear could still write it in a way that it’s not as impactful to the road fund. That’ll be up to him to make that policy decision,” Shell said.