The Trump administration has invoked the Defense Production Act to expand a Tyler, Texas refinery, Vice President JD Vance announced, seeking millions of gallons of fuel.
Vice President JD Vance told a Texas crowd that the administration, working with Delek, has used the Defense Production Act to grow the refinery in Tyler and lift fuel output for both commercial buyers and the military.
The announcement came Tuesday during a campaign stop backing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Just the News reported the move as part of broader efforts to steady energy markets after months of global disruption.
Vance framed the expansion in plain terms. More fuel. More capacity. Right in East Texas.
He said the goal is straightforward production growth at the existing plant.
"I am pleased to announce that the Trump administration working with the refinery at Delek has used the Defense Production Act and we are gonna expand the refinery right here in Tyler, Texas,"
Vance added a second target for the project.
"We want millions of gallons of commercial grade and military spec fuel to come out of this refinery in addition to what it's already producing!"
The Defense Production Act is a Korean War-era statute that lets the federal government prioritize and expand industrial output tied to national security. The administration already turned to it earlier this year to bolster munitions production amid shortage concerns tied to fighting in the Middle East.
Military-spec fuel sits at the center of the Tyler plan. That focus lines up with other defense-side priorities the White House has pressed, including the Trump administration push on military personnel policy now before the courts.
Energy markets have been in chaos since the start of the Iran war, according to the same reporting. Officials have treated domestic refining capacity as one lever among several.
President Donald Trump recently negotiated a deal with Russia to inject diesel fuel into the global market, even as sanctions tied to the Ukraine war remain in place. He has also pressed Ukraine to refrain from striking Russian energy facilities.
That approach matches the tone of other recent remarks on the conflict, including when Trump said Ukraine needs new leadership after continued strikes on Russian refineries.
The Tyler expansion fits the same pattern: more supply, fewer shocks, and less reliance on fragile overseas flows.
Vance delivered the news while stumping for Paxton. The attorney general faces an unexpectedly close Senate contest against Democratic candidate James Talarico in a state that usually leans hard Republican.
Local energy jobs and fuel security play well with Texas voters. The stop gave Vance a concrete deliverable to point to while he made the case for Paxton.
The administration has moved on several fronts at once this cycle. Separate from the refinery news, it has returned to the Supreme Court over mail-ballot rules ahead of the midterms.
It has also ended certain Medicaid payments tied to gender procedures for minors and logged court wins on state benefits for illegal immigrants. Those fights sit in different lanes, yet they share the same executive tempo.
One more example came when a federal judge struck down Illinois tuition benefits for illegal immigrants, another administration-aligned result in the states.
Public details remain thin. The reporting does not include a signed order text, an effective date, a dollar figure, a barrel-per-day target, or a construction timeline beyond Vance’s “millions of gallons” goal.
Delek is named as the partner. The precise legal name of the Tyler facility and the full scope of the expansion are not spelled out in the available account.
Still, the direction is not ambiguous. The White House is using a national-security production tool to grow domestic fuel output in a Republican stronghold, while the president works parallel channels abroad to ease diesel tightness.
Americans who pay at the pump, and service members who need reliable supply, gain when refining capacity rises at home instead of waiting on the next overseas shock.