Trump Draws the Defense Production Act on the Gas Pump. The $150 Million Has No Names Attached Yet.

President Donald J. Trump. Photo: Daniel Torok / The White House (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).

President Donald J. Trump, official 2025 portrait. Photo by Daniel Torok, The White House, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

A Hoosier pulling up to the pump Friday paid an average of $3.98 for a gallon of regular, according to AAA. That is a dime more than Thursday and 18 cents more than Wednesday, WWBL reported from the same AAA numbers. Truckers had it worse: Indiana diesel averaged $6.61, which is $2.86 above where it stood a year ago.

Washington's answer arrived the night before. In a presidential determination dated Oct. 22, President Trump declared that domestic petroleum production, refining, pipelines, storage and marine terminals are "essential to the national defense" and opened Section 303 of the Defense Production Act, the 1950 law presidents use to steer federal money into industries they consider vital.

The Department of Energy put a number on it: up to $150 million in Title III funds, which the department says is "expected to increase U.S. refining output by millions of gallons per day." Which refineries get the money is a separate question, and on that one the department had only this to say: "The selection process is ongoing and will be announced in the near future."

What the order actually says

The memo ties itself to Executive Order 14156, the national energy emergency Trump declared on his first day back in office in January 2025. It finds that American industry can't add this capacity on its own in a timely way because of tight financing, long lead times, permitting and infrastructure bottlenecks, and supply-chain limits.

Then comes the line that deserves a second read. Citing section 303(a)(7), the president waived the requirements of sections 303(a)(1) through (a)(6), the preconditions the statute normally sets before this kind of money moves. The memo is addressed to the "Secretary of War," whom it authorizes to make purchases, purchase commitments and other financial arrangements to carry it out.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright framed the move as cleanup duty. "After 17 years of Democrat leaders enacting energy subtraction policies that led to the closure of refineries," he said in the department's release, before crediting the president with reversing course. The department said the money comes out of $1 billion in Defense Production Act funding provided by what it calls the Working Families Tax Cuts law.

Why this lands in Lake County

Indiana is not a bystander in the refining business. BP's Whiting refinery is the largest in the Midwest and BP's largest anywhere, able to process around 440,000 barrels of crude a day, according to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and BP's own Indiana fact sheet, which says it makes enough fuel each day for the average daily travel of more than 7 million cars. When Midwest refining is tight, that one plant on the shore of Lake Michigan matters to every driver from Gary to Evansville.

Neither the memo nor the Energy Department's announcement names any Indiana facility, and none of the reporting so far suggests one is in line.

The receipts taxpayers haven't seen

Conservatives have spent years arguing that Washington regulated refineries out of existence, and there is a fair case that the federal government owes the country some help putting capacity back. There is an equally conservative case for watching closely whenever Washington hands checks to companies it picked itself, oil companies included. A few things are missing so far.

First, the math. A promise of "millions of gallons per day" from $150 million is a big claim, and CNBC reported that the memo names no specific projects that would get the money. Until there is a list with dollar amounts and output targets, nobody outside the administration can check it.

Second, the track record. On Oct. 13, Vice President JD Vance announced a Defense Production Act expansion of Delek's refinery in Tyler, Texas, which processes about 74,000 barrels a day, Reuters reported. Neither the White House nor Delek disclosed how much federal money was involved or how much capacity would be added, according to that report, and Reuters noted that refinery expansions can take months if not years.

Third, the calendar. The midterm elections are Nov. 3. CNBC noted that crude and diesel prices surged after the U.S.-Israel attack on Iran in late February, and that a Reuters/Ipsos poll found 36% of Americans approve of Trump's handling of the economy. Trump himself laid out the $150 million figure at a rally in Sioux City, Iowa, on Thursday night, The Hill reported.

None of that makes the policy wrong. More American refining is a goal most Hoosier conservatives share, and the president is right that the country has lost capacity it needs. But a refinery expansion that takes years does nothing for a diesel bill due this week, and an emergency waiver is exactly the kind of power that ought to come with a public accounting of where the money went.

The Energy Department says the names are coming "in the near future." When they arrive, the Hoosier Enquirer will look at who got paid, how much, and how many gallons the public was promised in return.

Written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.