The US president’s push to curb energy prices ahead of the midterms follows his diesel deal with Russia
US President Donald Trump has invoked a Cold War-era national security law to boost domestic oil production and refining, as rising fuel prices threaten the Republicans’ chances in November’s midterm elections.
Speaking on Thursday at a Republican campaign rally in Iowa – an agricultural state where farmers have been hit hard by the oil crisis – Trump announced that his administration would use the Defense Production Act (DPA) to provide up to $150 million to expand American refining capacity and produce diesel and gasoline “at record levels.”
He also predicted that the Iran and Ukraine conflicts would end soon, sending gasoline and oil prices “tumbling down.”
Enacted in 1950, the DPA allows Washington to financially support industries deemed essential to national defense. In a presidential memorandum, Trump designated domestic petroleum production, refineries, pipelines, and storage facilities as critical to national security, arguing that private companies could not expand capacity quickly enough without federal intervention.
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