I filled up yesterday at $4.25 a gallon, what was regular gas at $3.27 a gallon. 98 cents more a gallon for a byproduct. This is getting out I hand. I had to put a fuel surcharge in my plow contracts this year.

 

4.09$ to 4.28$ here in Nebraska

 

3.89 here in ga -up from 3.78 2 weeks ago. I found myself looking a corolla beater car the other day to save some money but could not justify the added expense of insurance tags etc

 

Diesel has been at 3.79, I would swear, for the last 12 months. Never changing at all. At one point gas was close to that amount, then it dropped to 3.17 locally and an hour away it was 3.08. But diesel was still 3.79. It is absolutely insane that gas can go up and down but diesel never changes unless it is to go up. In 2003 when I bought my truck it too $45 to fill it. Now it is well over a $100. It is nuts that since the current administration has been in office there has been no relief in the cost of the primary fuel that transports everything we buy, from food to consumer goods, to vehicles. It is just a way to cost everyone more money whether the budget allows for it or not. Gas can fluctuate up and down, but the freight fuel just stays up. Just nuts.

 

Yep it's been 3.79 around here for quite a while & gas 3.20-3.65 but diesel never changed until this week it went to 3.89

I know what you mean twg when I got my first diesel gas was 1.25 & fuel was .85

 

we have been paying about 5.30 gallon for the last year and half. Thats at parity with the USD. When it was around 75-80c for 1 USD you could add another 20-25% on that. over $6 a gallon

 

$3.95 in central NC...

 

I pay 4.30 here i Calif. They said China is short on diesel so we pay the price. What S-----. It always goes up here in Calif around this time of year but we're almost paying the same as we did when oil was $147. a barrel. Something stinks,
Chet

 

My feeling is these overseas suppliers have got all of us by the short hairs, not only with costs for personal Diesel powered vehicles but also for the BIG truckers who bring basicly everything we consume to market-alot of people complain about the cost of food, clothing, furniture, ect but its really not the products that are getting more expensive-its the darn fuel cost to get the products to us all.
Is there any way the US can get by without the foreign stuff? I don't know the current % that we import, but I think a Presidential descision could be made to do without it.

 

We need more refining here in the good old USA. Problem is: no one wants a refinery in their back yard. Our refineries are old and basically outdated. We need more capacity locally to be able to supply fuel at reasonable rates.

 

While I totally agree tell that to these idiots we have running the country, hellfire we can't even run a new pipeline let alone build a refinery & to top it off I'm working in a Sunoco refinery & they have shut down 2 refineries within 100 miles of the one I'm at & it is scheduled to shut down in July of next year.

 

Now that US diesel is ULSD more foreign markets have opened up so more US-refined diesel is exported. I think ~10-15% of US diesel production is exported currently.

Here is an interesting govt site that tracks prices and supply weekly:

This Week In Petroleum Distillate Section

 

It's not overseas supply, and it's not refineries that's the problem.

We currently have a greater refinery capacity than we've had in the past 30 years. On top of that, our refinery usage is still relatively low (been hovering below 90% for quite some time now). Back in the mid 90's, fuel was at a 60-year inflation adjusted low. Our refinery usage during that time? It peaked at 99%.

Most crude oil is cheaper to get overseas than our domestic production. Much of it has to do with the oil location and the expense of drilling/extracting the oil. It's just plain cheaper to get it when it's lying in formations that are far easier to reach.

The real problem with oil/fuel prices today is over-speculation. The commodities markets were deregulated back in 2000, and oil prices started steadily climbing after that. When you open a market up to a flood of speculators, they create an artificial demand. That drives up prices, and causes instability in the market. We saw the results of that in 2008, and we continue to see the after-effects now.... mainly because the real issue hasn't been fixed yet.

 

Excellent read Curtis. The bill was changed under Bush. It hasn't been changed and oil is bid on over seas. We don't even keep our own oil any more. And congress wants it higher so they can put us in these small cars period.
Chet

 

Exactly true. That's the best explanation right there.