Russian refineries and the price of diesel

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Kimberly Adams (0:31)

What will it take to bring down the price of diesel?

From Marketplace in Washington, I'm Kimberly Adams. Diesel is still hovering at more than $6 a gallon, and President Trump is blaming Ukrainian airstrikes on Russian oil refineries for pushing up prices. Marketplace's Nancy Marshall-Ginzer joins me now with the latest. Good morning, Nancy.

Nancy Marshall-Ginzer (0:51)

Good morning.

Kimberly Adams (0:52)

The Ukrainian attacks do seem to be having an effect on Russian refineries, but how extensive is the damage?

Nancy Marshall-Ginzer (0:59)

Well, Ukraine says it's disabled about half of Russia's oil refining capacity that hasn't been independently verified. But last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin did say the Ukrainian attacks on refineries sliced about a percentage point off of Russia's gross domestic product.

Kimberly Adams (1:16)

President Trump has apparently asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to stop attacking Russian refineries. What's the Ukrainian response been?

Nancy Marshall-Ginzer (1:26)

They say, no, they're not backing down. Now, Kimberly, Russia was a major diesel exporter, but Moscow has just extended its ban on diesel exports to the end of October.

Kimberly Adams (1:37)

Speaking of diesel, President Trump also signed an executive order last night that's intended to help diesel users in the US. What would that do?

Nancy Marshall-Ginzer (1:46)

Well, it allows the use of off-road dye diesel on the highway until the end of this year.

And this diesel is the same as regular diesel, but it's not taxed. It's dyed red to set it apart. And it's usually only allowed for off-road driving, like for tractors on farms. A White House fact sheet claims the red dyed diesel will save truckers $100 per fill-up.

Kimberly Adams (2:10)

Thank you, Nancy.

Nancy Marshall-Ginzer (2:11)

You're welcome.

Kimberly Adams (2:47)

The artificial intelligence boom is driving a massive surge in data center construction across the country. But a recent proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency could change the rules around how communities find out about these facilities and their potential effects on air quality before they're built. For more, I'm joined by Amanda Garcia, Senior Attorney and Data Center Lead at the Southern Environmental Law Center. Amanda, welcome.

Amanda Garcia (3:12)

Good morning, Kimberly.

Kimberly Adams (3:13)

Let's start with a refresher on the Clean Air Act. What is it and what does it do for people?

Amanda Garcia (3:19)

The Clean Air Act is our country's foundational environmental law that protects air quality.

It does that primarily by setting limits that protect public health for the air that we breathe. The way that we meet those limits is the states have to come up with plans that will meet those national limits. And in particular, they have to have permitting in place for new sources of air pollution and existing sources of air pollution.

Those permits have limits in them that make sure that the facilities that we build for the first time have the best available technology for controlling air pollution.

Kimberly Adams (4:09)

Under the Trump administration, the EPA has been making quite a few changes to the Clean Air Act, including those that advocates say are kind of undermining it. What have some of those changes been so far?

Amanda Garcia (4:23)

The administration has proposed to roll back a lot of key environmental protections in the Clean Air Act, including rolling back those ambient air quality protections that protect the air we breathe. But they're also looking at rolling back some of the permitting protections. And one key one that I really am concerned about is taking away the ability of the public to comment on most air permitting for new sources of air pollution across the country. And those new sources of air pollution include things like data centers.

Kimberly Adams (5:02)

Let's dig into that a bit more, because over the summer, the EPA proposed rolling back notification requirements for minor sources of pollution. What counts as minor sources?

Amanda Garcia (5:15)

So the term minor source is really a bit misleading, because while there are some sources of air pollution that are truly minor, many of them are major industrial facilities like data centers, even some power plants that have agreed to take some limits on how much pollution they can put forward in order to get a minor source permit. And the incentive for doing that is that there are less stringent requirements for minor sources. But the underlying facility itself can still be a source that is going to have a major impact on the community.