Texas Waives Dyed-Diesel Restrictions: What the September 28 Disaster Declaration Does, and What It Leaves in Place

What Changed, and When

On September 28, 2026, Governor Greg Abbott issued a statewide disaster proclamation addressing diesel fuel supply and prices, announced by the Office of the Governor as “Governor Abbott Waives Dyed-Diesel Restrictions.” As described in that release and in the coverage that followed, the proclamation does four things:

• Suspends the state restriction on dyed diesel used on public roadways. Farmers and truckers may put dyed diesel in an on-road vehicle without the state penalty that ordinarily attaches.
• Suspends state oversize and overweight permitting requirements for fuel, agricultural and timber loads, which may move at gross weights up to 95,000 pounds.
• Suspends the Texas Low Emission Diesel (TxLED) standard in the 110 Texas counties where it applies, bringing those counties to the federal standard — pending authorization from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
• Requests a federal waiver. The Governor asked EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to grant a temporary Clean Air Act waiver of federal ultra-low sulfur diesel requirements and of TxLED, to widen the pool of fuel that can lawfully be sold in Texas.

The declaration runs for 30 days and can be extended, as The Texas Tribune reported on September 28. The Tribune and Houston Public Media both put the average Texas diesel price at the time of the proclamation at about $5.86 per gallon, against roughly $3.30 in early February.

What the proclamation does not do, by its own terms: it does not waive the underlying federal fuel tax on dyed diesel, a point the Governor’s release states directly. It also does not put the TxLED suspension into effect on its own — that piece is conditioned on the EPA acting.

Who in Texas This Reaches

The disaster proclamation is statewide, so the dyed-diesel and weight provisions are not limited to a list of counties. The TxLED piece is narrower: it is the 110 counties where the Texas Low Emission Diesel standard applies, and it is the piece that waits on the EPA.

The people this lands on are a defined group:

• Farmers and ranchers who already buy dyed diesel for off-road equipment and now face a question about their on-road trucks.
• Independent truckers and small fleet owners hauling fuel, crops or timber, for whom both the fuel provision and the 95,000-pound weight provision apply at once.
• Timber haulers in East Texas, named specifically in the weight relief.
• Fuel distributors and retailers deciding what they may lawfully sell and to whom, and what records that decision requires.
• Employers whose drivers make the call at the pump. The federal penalty statute discussed below reaches officers, employees and agents of a business entity who willfully participate in a violation, on a joint and several basis.

What This Changes Legally

The state prohibition being suspended is a specific statute. Texas Tax Code Section 162.235 provides that “a person may not operate a motor vehicle on a public highway in this state with taxable motor fuel that contains dye in the fuel supply tank of the motor vehicle.” That is the rule the proclamation suspends, and it is a state rule enforced under the state motor fuel tax chapter, Tax Code Chapter 162.

The federal dyed-fuel penalty is a different statute, in a different code, enforced by a different agency. Under 26 U.S.C. Section 6715, a penalty applies to a person who uses dyed fuel in a taxable use knowing the fuel was dyed, and the amount is the greater of $1,000 or $10 for each gallon of dyed fuel involved, rising for repeat violations. Relief from that federal penalty has historically come from the Internal Revenue Service in its own announcements, separately from anything a Governor issues; the IRS has granted dyed-fuel penalty relief for particular disasters in the past, on its own terms and for its own stated periods. Whether any such federal relief exists for this event, and what it would cover, is a federal question rather than a state one.

A permit waiver and a weight limit are not the same thing. The proclamation lifts the state permitting requirement for loads up to 95,000 pounds. Federal weight limits on the Interstate System, and the conditions under which a state may allow emergency exceptions to them, sit in federal law and federal regulation. What a particular route, a particular load and a particular set of axles is permitted to carry during this window is a question with more than one body of law in it.

The TxLED suspension is conditional, and conditions have dates. Because that element depends on EPA authorization, the operative question for a fuel seller is not what the proclamation announced but whether and when the federal authorization issued, and on what terms.

Thirty days is a defined window. The proclamation may be extended, and it may not. Conduct that is permitted inside the window is governed by whatever the law is on the day the fuel goes in the tank, and a lapsed or narrowed proclamation changes that answer for the next day.

Insurance, contracts and enforcement records sit downstream of all of this. Carriers, shippers and lenders write their own compliance requirements into contracts, and a contract term is not suspended by a disaster proclamation.

What Kind of Option Might Apply

Nothing on this page is legal advice, and nothing here says whether any particular operator, load or fill-up is covered by the proclamation. What an experienced Texas attorney can review, against the actual proclamation text and the actual operation, includes:

• How the state suspension and the federal dyed-fuel penalty interact for one vehicle, one driver and one load.
• What records support a good-faith position if a fuel purchase or a road use is later questioned by the Comptroller or the IRS.
• An assessment, citation or penalty notice already received, and what the response window and the appeal path look like.
• Weight and permit exposure on a specific route, including where an Interstate segment changes the analysis.
• What a fuel distributor or retailer may sell during the window, and what documentation the sale calls for.
• Employer and driver responsibility, given that the federal statute reaches officers, employees and agents who willfully participate.
• Contract and insurance terms that impose compliance obligations a proclamation does not touch.
• What happens when the 30 days run out, including fuel already in a tank.

Why Acting Quickly Can Matter

A window that opens on a proclamation is also a window that closes on one, and the conduct in the middle is judged against the rule in force at the time. Questions about fuel use are usually reconstructed later from paper — fuel receipts, delivery tickets, trip records, weight tickets, dispatch logs — and that record is at its most complete while the window is open rather than months afterward, when a notice arrives and the tickets have to be found.

Tax and penalty notices, at both the state and federal level, carry their own response deadlines that run from the date on the notice rather than from the day someone understands what it says. An attorney reading a notice inside its response window is in a different position from one reading it after the window has closed. The same is true of a citation written during the emergency period, which will be answered in a court that applies the law as it stood on the date of the stop.

Sources

1. Office of the Texas Governor, “Governor Abbott Waives Dyed-Diesel Restrictions,” September 28, 2026 (primary document; dyed-diesel suspension, 95,000-pound loads, TxLED in 110 counties pending EPA authorization, request to the EPA Administrator, federal fuel tax not waived).
2. Texas Tax Code, Section 162.235, Use of Dyed Fuel Prohibited (the state prohibition the proclamation suspends).
3. 26 U.S.C. Section 6715, Dyed fuel sold for use or used in taxable use, etc. (federal penalty: greater of $1,000 or $10 per gallon; joint and several liability for officers, employees and agents).
4. Internal Revenue Service, example of federal dyed-fuel penalty relief issued for a declared disaster (illustrating that federal relief issues separately, from the IRS).
5. The Texas Tribune, “Abbott declares disaster in Texas over diesel prices, waives restrictions on commercial shipping,” September 28, 2026 (30-day duration, price figures).
6. Houston Public Media, “Gov. Greg Abbott declares statewide disaster proclamation over diesel shortages,” September 28, 2026.
7. Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, diesel fuel tax information (state administration of the motor fuels tax).