Diesel at a record $5.86 a gallon in Texas prompted Gov. Greg Abbott to declare a statewide fuel emergency Monday, Sept. 28, loosening trucking rules and fuel restrictions that directly affect Prosper, Celina and the rest of Collin and Denton counties.

The disaster proclamation covers all 254 Texas counties. It lets farmers and truckers burn dyed diesel on public roads, raises the gross weight limit for fuel, agricultural and timber loads to 95,000 pounds, and suspends Texas Low Emission Diesel (TxLED) rules contingent on an EPA waiver. The 30-day declaration can be extended indefinitely, the Texas Tribune reported.

Dyed diesel is off-road fuel sold without a motor-fuels tax and normally banned from public highways. The proclamation lifts that ban but does not waive the underlying tax.

Abbott also sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin requesting a temporary Clean Air Act waiver of federal ultra-low sulfur diesel standards in 110 Texas counties. Collin and Denton counties are both on that list, according to the governor's letter to the EPA. The EPA had not publicly responded as of Monday.

The waiver targets TxLED rules, which require a higher cetane index and lower aromatic content than the federal standard. TxLED diesel is sold only in those 110 counties. Abbott argued that temporarily lifting the restrictions would increase available supply and push prices down.

The proclamation cites Russia's ban on diesel exports in early July 2026, which it says cut global refining output by roughly 10 percent, along with attacks on oil tankers in critical shipping lanes. U.S. distillate reserves have dropped to their lowest seasonal levels since the Energy Information Administration began tracking the data in 1982, the proclamation states.

The proclamation states that rising diesel prices have reduced construction spending, increased building costs and driven up the price of food and other goods for Texas families. Small and independent truckers face dramatic cost increases that threaten their ability to stay in business, the document adds.

At a press conference about a week before the proclamation, Abbott said the root cause lies overseas. "We all know what the solution is, and that is the end of the war in Iran," he said, according to Texas Scorecard. "And when that war ends, fuel is going to go back down to lower than it was before."

Abbott's office has said the governor lacks authority to broadly suspend the state gas tax. Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican U.S. Senate nominee, called Sept. 26 for suspending the federal gas tax. The federal diesel tax is 24.4 cents per gallon, the Texas Tribune reported. Paxton said he would prefer to eliminate the tax permanently.

The declaration lasts 30 days from Monday. No extension hearing or review date has been announced.