Vance announces plan to use wartime authority to boost fuel production at Texas refinery

The Trump administration will use wartime authority to augment fuel production at a refinery in Texas, Vice President JD Vance announced on Tuesday. The move comes as high energy prices are putting a strain on the economy and are becoming a political liability ahead of the midterms.

“I am pleased to announce that the Trump administration, working with the refinery at Delek, has used the Defense Production Act and we’re going to expand the refinery right here in Tyler, Texas,” Vance said during a Texas rally.

“We want millions of gallons of commercial-grade and military-spec fuel to come out of this refinery, in addition to what it’s already producing,” Vance told the crowd.

The Defense Production Act gives the president the authority to increase the production of certain items to advance national security.

It’s unclear whether the use of the Defense Production Act will go beyond just this one refinery. The Hill has reached out to the White House for additional comment.

The announcement comes as gasoline and diesel prices remain high, averaging about $4.34 and $6.28 per gallon respectively on Tuesday, according to AAA .

Asked last week about the potential for the wartime authority to bring down prices in general, Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, was skeptical that it would do much to immediately improve the situation.

“Refineries that are currently in operation are already making as much diesel as they possibly can,” Lipow told The Hill last week. “There’s very little that the administration can do today to get more diesel fuel out of the refineries that are already in operation.”

“Your choice is: you can send more money to the refineries that are in operation so they can make investments to produce more diesel months and years down the road or you can see if there’s an opportunity to restart some of the refineries that have been recently shut down or you can build new refineries,” Lipow continued.

Prices are high as the war in Iran has driven up oil costs and weakened energy infrastructure in the Middle East and Ukraine has targeted Russian refineries as those two countries remain at war.