COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — State officials nationwide are focusing on rising gas and diesel prices tied to the war in Iran, offering gas tax holidays and other measures to ease costs as affordability remains a top voter concern in the critical midterm elections.
The high gas prices took center stage in Ohio on Wednesday, as lawmakers passed a 90-day state gas tax holiday with broad bipartisan support. Including Ohio, about one-third of U.S. states have implemented some form of fuel tax relief, with many taking action within the past week, according to an Associated Press review.
Some states have suspended their fuel taxes. Others have temporarily reduced taxes. And still more have targeted relief only to farmers, loggers and others who use a special type of diesel fuel.
The average price of regular gasoline stood at $4.43 a gallon on Wednesday, up roughly 50% since the war with Iran began, according to the AAA motor club. The average price of diesel was $6.41 a gallon — just a few cents shy of a record high set last week.
Here's what to know about states’ actions on fuel taxes:
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's office said he plans to sign legislation that will suspend the 38.5-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax and 47-cent-per-gallon diesel tax through the remainder of this year. The plan taps $725 million from the state's general fund to pay for roads and bridges typically funded by fuel taxes.
Republican legislative leaders scrambled to recall lawmakers to the Statehouse after Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton called for a gas tax holiday last week and rival Republican Vivek Ramaswamy announced a plan to do the same a few hours later. The two are locked in a closely fought contest to succeed DeWine, a term-limited Republican. Democrats criticized Ramaswamy for taking credit for Acton's idea, while Ramaswamy's allies said his plan had substance and Acton's consisted of “tweets.”
Ramaswamy's running mate, Rob McColley, is the Ohio Senate president. On Wednesday, McColley used a technical maneuver to quickly close debate on the measure, suggesting Democrats were preparing for nothing more than “theatrics.” Senate Democratic Leader Nickie Antonio said one proposal would have called for an end to the Iran war.
Republican state Sen. Michele Reynolds, a co-sponsor of the legislation, said it "will provide much-needed relief to Ohioans at a time when they are feeling the pressure of gas prices continuing to rise.”
In the House, Democratic state Rep. Allison Russo, a candidate for secretary of state, accused Republicans of an election-year “stunt” that will save Ohioans an average of $55 over the next three months.
In March, Georgia became the first state to suspend its fuel taxes after the war in the Middle East sent prices spiraling. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp extended the tax break into June. More recently, he announced a 30-day resumption of the motor fuel tax holiday, which began Tuesday.
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican, has extended a fuel tax exemption multiple times since spring, with the current version running through Oct. 5.
A six-month, 6-cent reduction in Utah's fuel tax is in effect through the end of this year. Illinois and Kentucky have more modest fuel tax breaks in effect, delaying increases that were due to take effect in July.
In the past week, governors in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas all have taken steps to provide fuel tax relief for the agricultural industry amid the harvest season.
The executive orders target dyed diesel fuel, which is exempt from state taxes but normally can be used only for off-road machinery like tractors, logging equipment and irrigation pumps. The orders temporarily waive enforcement of those rules, allowing the tax-exempt diesel fuel to be used in vehicles driven on highways.
Some governors noted that reduced costs for transporting crops could affect grocery prices.
The Environmental Protection Agency allowed an annual switch to cheaper, winter-blended fuels beginning Sept. 1, a couple of weeks earlier than normal. The change could save up to 15 cents a gallon, according to data from the National Association of Convenience Stores.
But California sets its own stricter environmental fuel standards. In many parts of the state, summer-blended fuel is required through Oct. 31. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom ended the summer fuel requirement Monday, citing a recent state law that requires a reevaluation of regulations when retail gas prices rise substantially.
State actions intended to provide relief from high fuel prices don't always have the effect some consumers expect. That's partly because fuel price volatility could cause costs to rise even as tax rates fall. But that's also because taxes typically are charged at the wholesale level, not at the retail pump.
“Customers expect the day that a gas tax holiday takes effect that the price at every pump will be reduced by that amount. But it’s way more complicated than that,” said Jeff Lenard, a spokesperson for the National Association of Convenience Stores.
“The costs and the changes happen further upstream," he said. "The retailer may also have product that has already been paid for with taxes that needs to be sold before you can acquire the new fuel that is not taxed and you can lower the price.”
Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri.
Gas and diesel prices are displayed at a Shell station, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, in Doral, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
FILE -Diesel prices are displayed at a gas station Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, in Carlsbad, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing the execution of Christa Gail Pike to go forward, overturning a last-minute stay on Wednesday that was issued by an appeals court hours earlier.
Pike was scheduled to die by lethal injection in the morning, and witnesses had already gathered at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville when the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to issue a stay. That court said a delay was needed to consider whether Pike’s allegations of childhood sexual abuse were fully considered at her sentencing.
Pike, now 50, and her boyfriend were convicted of the 1995 stabbing and beating of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville.
The case garnered widespread attention at the time in part because a pentagram that was carved on Slemmer’s body and other elements of the crime stoked fears of Satan worship during the “satanic panic” of the 1980s and 1990s.
Tennessee has not executed a woman in at least 200 years.
Tennessee’s attorney general immediately appealed the stay to the U.S. Supreme Court. Witnesses and media remained at the prison while the high court considered whether to allow the execution to proceed.
The state's execution order expires at midnight, said Kelley Henry, a Nashville-based attorney experienced with Tennessee death penalty law. If time runs out and the stay is lifted, the Tennessee Supreme Court would need to set a new execution date.
In its appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the attorney general's office wrote that halting the execution at the last moment traumatized Slemmer’s family and rewarded “abusive delay tactics” by Pike’s attorneys.
Pike does not deny committing the killing, but her supporters argue the state should consider her age at the time, her mental illness and her allegations of severe sexual abuse that included being raped from the time she was a toddler.
“It is inconceivable that in the 21st century, the criminal justice system is poised to execute a survivor of rape and child sexual abuse whose jury never had the opportunity to consider those facts in weighing the defendant’s moral culpability,” her attorneys wrote in a filing.
As the execution date drew near, Pike's case renewed debate over the death penalty for young offenders.
Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike’s death sentence is an outlier because other 18-year-olds in Tennessee have had such sentences vacated.
After the killing, Pike was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. In her clemency petition, she said she only wanted to fight Slemmer but killed her in a frenzied attack when she couldn’t “put the brakes on.”
“I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime,” Pike said in a statement.
Slemmer’s mother wants the lethal injection to go forward, saying she has waited decades to see Pike’s sentence carried out.
“Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run,” May Martinez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview on Saturday.
Martinez said a group helped raise money so she and her husband could travel from Florida to witness the execution. She didn't respond to a message Wednesday after the execution was halted.
Martinez said her daughter's age also should matter in deciding Pike's fate.
“Not a day goes by, or a minute goes by that I do not think about Colleen. Holidays are the worst,” she said, noting that her daughter would have turned 51 earlier in September.
The killing rocked the city of Knoxville. Prosecutors said Pike, fearing Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, lured her to a wooded area on Jan. 12, 1995. Pike cut Slemmer with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt. Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend, has admitted that he was the one who carved a pentagram, a star-shaped symbol associated with Satan, into her body.
Shipp was 17 when the crime happened and received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. Pike was the only one sentenced to death.
Tennessee has not executed a woman for at least 200 years, according to Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Older records can be spotty, though, so it’s difficult to know precise details about the last woman who was put to death there.
Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 18 women have been put to death in the U.S., representing about 1% of all executions, according to the center.
Most recently, Missouri in 2023 executed Amber McLaughlin for a 2003 killing, in what is believed to be the first execution of a transgender woman in the U.S. In 2021, the federal government executed Lisa Montgomery, marking the first time in nearly seven decades that the U.S. government put a female inmate to death.
Pike would be the 30th person executed in the U.S. this year after Florida carried out an execution on Tuesday.
Associated Press journalists Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, and Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.
May Martinez, left, mother of murder victim Colleen Slemmer, walks out of Riverbend Maximum Security Institution during a stay of the planned execution of Christa Pike, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Leslie Brown, right, stands with others in the area reserved for people in favor to the death penalty outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the planned execution of Christa Pike, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Kathleen Walter prays in the area reserved for people opposed to the death penalty outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the planned execution of Christa Pike, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Abraham Bonowitz speaks during a March 4 Mercy protest against the death penalty at the Tennessee State Capitol, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. ahead of the Sept. 30th scheduled execution of Christa Pike. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Alonzo Hughes participates in a March 4 Mercy protest against the death penalty at the Tennessee State Capitol, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. ahead of the Sept. 30th scheduled execution of Christa Pike. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
In this image from video provided by WBIR-TV, Christa Pike cries after being sentenced to death on March 30, 1996 in Knoxville, Tenn. (WBIR-TV via AP)
This photo provided by the Tennessee Department of Correction shows Christa Pike on Jan. 12, 2023. (TDOC via AP)
