By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

Senator Chuck Grassley says he’d vote to temporarily suspend the federal tax on gasoline and diesel to provide relief to farmers and other drivers, but he suggests the oil industry could and should lower the price on its own.

“We all know that ‘Big Oil’ in the last quarter reported historically high profits,” Grassley said this morning during a conference call with Iowa radio reporters. “…’Big Oil,’ just charge Americans a lower price and don’t target their America price to the global price of oil.”

The federal tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents a gallon and it’s higher for diesel: 24.4 cents a gallon. Grassley said suspending those taxes wouldn’t have as much of an impact as tying U.S. diesel prices, for example, to the U-S oil supply. “Reduce it for a dollar or two or whatever’s appropriate to get this price down so it’s reasonable for American farmers and American truckers,” Grassley said. “…Don’t forget every produce that you eat or wear or use is trucked someplace in the United States, so it’s going to protect the consumers of the United States well as the farmers of the United States.”

Grassley, in a post on social media, said he doesn’t buy the oil industry’s claim that an embargo on exports of U-S diesel would have the unintended consequence of prompting American refiners to reduce production and, therefore raise prices here. Grassley said if the government can enforce an embargo on computer chips to China, it can embargo diesel to help farmers and the American trucking industry. “And that’s putting the American farmer, the American trucker, the American consumer first in America,” Grassley said this morning to Iowa reporters. “‘America First,’ as the president always talks about ‘America First.’”

The U.S. currently produces 5.3 million barrels of diesel each day. About two-thirds of that is kept in the U.S. to meet domestic demand.