From§Each

Page F2From§Eachthe milkman edition — 29 September 2026

Grassley's embargo would raise the diesel price Georgia's governor just cut the tax to lower.

By SalStaff Writer

“Georgia Gov. Kemp suspends state gas tax for 30 days”, 29 September 2026 (Photo via The Hill — the original report)

As it ran on the front

Chuck Grassley posted on 20 September that President Trump should put an embargo on diesel exports. The post came first, before anything else in this fight.

The next day, in Georgia, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms called on Governor Brian Kemp to revive the diesel tax suspension he had signed back in March and extended once to May, before letting it lapse. Same fuel, same season, opposite instincts: a Republican senator asking Washington to restrict the diesel supply, a Democratic nominee asking a Republican governor to cut the tax on the diesel already sitting at the pump.…

…(cont) On 22 September, The Hill reported what Grassley's post had done to his own conference: split it. Oil-state Republicans, who sell diesel abroad, lined up against it. Majority Leader John Thune has not said which side he's on. No bill, no hearing, no vote — only the two camps The Hill named and a majority leader keeping his own count to himself.

Eight days after Grassley's post, and seven days after Bottoms asked for it, Kemp signed the order: a suspension of Georgia's motor fuel tax, 33.3 cents a gallon on gasoline, 37.3 cents on diesel, framed this time around the Iran war pushing prices up rather than around his opponent's request. The tax comes back in 30 days unless Kemp signs it again — the same choice he made once already this year, before he let it lapse instead of renewing it further.

That's the ledger as it stands. One governor keeps a 33-cent number on a piece of paper he can suspend and reinstate whenever the politics call for it. Grassley told a reporter this month he doesn't want a Democrat picking his successor.

“Kemp signs a piece of paper and the number at the pump drops the next morning — that's the whole trick, and it works because anybody can check it at the sign. Grassley's trick runs the other way: ban the exports, and his own party can't agree whether the price at home even moves. Same tank, same week, two Republicans pulling in opposite directions, and the guy filling up doesn't get asked which way he'd like it pulled.”
Sal
“Keeping diesel here for our own farmers isn't a price hike, it's a supply plan — ask any farm-state senator, they'll tell you. Sure, the oil-state guys are screaming, but that's just called having a conference, not a party falling apart. And Kemp cutting his own state's fuel tax the same week we're basically saying prices are a problem — that's a coincidence. Did I say "basically saying"? Forget I said that.”
Chip

Earlier in this story

The receipts

Georgia Gov. Kemp suspends state gas tax for 30 days
The Hillmainstream§

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) on Monday signed an executive order suspending the state's gas tax for 30 days as the Iran war sends gas prices soaring. The order, which starts at 12:01 a.m.

· Keisha Lance Bottoms presses Kemp to pause diesel tax as rising prices show no sign of slowing from the morgue, 21 Sep 2026

This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.