When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Probably, theortically Diesel is easier to make then gas, and at any given time #2 home heating oil is between $.40 - $1.00 cheaper then diesel, and they are the same.
Something else to consider is that diesel is bought on contract far more than is gasoline. Many trucking companies buy 1-month contracts, even as far out as 6-months and 12-months. Refineries have to maintain profit margins on long-term contracts, so the price isn't quite as flexible as gasoline is on a day-to-day basis.
There's also a larger market-specific (and local competition) pricing factor; where pickup-driving folks buy fuel, prices tend to be higher. Where class-8 trucks are the major market, prices tend to be lower.
Around here, probably about a year-ish ago, diesel was about the same price as 93 octane or maybe 10 cents more a gallon.
Then the price of gas went up, and up, and suddenly diesel was 20 cents a gallon cheaper than regular.
Now gas prices have gone down again, and diesel went up about 10 cents, and it's about the same price as 93 octane again. WTF?
Never understood that. Although, the price of diesel has only fluctuated by 10 to 20 cents in all the time I've been watching it (almost a year).
Plus, a couple gas stations here in town have diesel for $3.09 a gallon, and others have it for 20 cents less. Just regular gas stations, not the types of places semis would frequent.
Here in Wake Forest, NC lately regular gas has been at $2.619 and was at $2.819 about two weeks ago. Diesel has been steady at around $2.819 to $2.849 for a long time..
Back in 03 when I purchased by FX4 six-oh, diesel was lowest priced fuel, and I was the first in my neighborhood to own a diesel vehicle.
Today there are seven diesel truck owners in my neighborhood, and diesel is the highest priced fuel.
Supply and demand? Perhaps, but I smell Big Oil Company Greed.
Military usage, they run everything they have on diesel in one form or another and that whole afganistan/ iraq thing takes a lot of fuel. Just a thought, everytime I fill up I just say thanks to them and wish them well, its worth it. Squirrelcop
the amount of extra fuel used in military operations is a drop in the bucket compared to overall domestic usage.
the military during peacetime uses about 5.8 billion gallons worth of fuel each year, the war has increased that to about 6 billion gallons worth of fuel. its not like all those planes, tanks and ships sit there and do nothing during peacetime.
america total consumes 137 billion gallons of fuel each year.
you can blame the increase on supply vs demand, the more people consume, the more diesel fuel is needed to deliver all those things, about everything you buy from anywhere was delivered somewhere in the logistics line by something diesel powered.
Military usage, they run everything they have on diesel in one form or another and that whole afganistan/ iraq thing takes a lot of fuel. Just a thought, everytime I fill up I just say thanks to them and wish them well, its worth it. Squirrelcop
Not so sure, in a video of a humvee in iraq, it clearly sounded like a big gasser