Washington asks shut refineries to reopen and pays farmers $8 billion for diesel costs

The US government is coaxing refiners to produce more diesel, energy department officials said¹. “We are talking about reopening every refinery we can,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in Houston, adding that there are dialogues under way¹. The administration is engaging with every refinery that has been shut in, Wright said³. The US is also pushing shuttered domestic refineries to reopen, he said at a Houston announcement on Tuesday².

In a separate move, President Donald Trump said his administration will provide $8 billion in aid to farmers hurt by record diesel prices⁴. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the USDA relief programme, which is meant to offset a portion of farmers’ 2026 crop-year losses⁶. Rollins said the one-time payments will help bring certainty to farmers⁵.

Why it matters to investors

The two measures attack the diesel problem from opposite ends. Reopening refineries would add supply over time, while the farm payments compensate one group of users for prices that are already high^1,4. Both are plans announced by the administration, and their effect on diesel prices is still to be seen^3,5.

For the refining industry, a government push to restart idled plants is an unusual signal^1,3. Wright’s description of talks with every shut refinery puts refining capacity, not only crude supply, at the centre of the administration’s diesel response^1,3.

The oil market is weighing other pressures at the same time. Brent slipped in a choppy session as investors weighed attacks on ships and on Saudi infrastructure². Those risks bear on crude supply, while the refinery push bears on the conversion of crude into fuel^1,2.

The farm aid matters for agricultural incomes in a crop year that the USDA says has brought losses^4,6. The payments are one-time and cover only part of crop-year losses, which limits how far they offset a sustained rise in fuel costs^5,6. The programme is presented by the administration as relief from what the White House calls record diesel prices⁴.

What to watch

The first test is whether any shut refinery announces a restart, and how quickly it could add diesel output^1,3. Wright has described dialogues, not agreements¹.

The second is how the USDA distributes the $8 billion, and whether farm groups judge the one-time payments sufficient against their 2026 losses^5,6. A third is whether attacks on shipping and Saudi infrastructure push crude prices higher and offset any gain from new refining capacity².