Why Is Diesel So Expensive?

[DiabloSammich]

Cmon, you smart people, help me with this. Until about three years ago, diesel fuel was always the cheapest fuel on the menu, or maybe slightly more expensive than regular unleaded.

Now, not only is it more expensive than premium, it's more epensive than premium by an average of 50 to 60 cents a gallon.

I understand the overall spike in fuel costs, and I know about supply and demand, but I just can't figure this out. Diesel is less refined than unleaded, it comes from the same raw material, so an increase in that material should result in an average increase across the board, not a spike in the least refined of the batch. Demand has not increased exponentially in the last few years, if anything it has decreased slightly with a shift towards alternative fuels. I just don't get it.

[pennington]

It's the same thing with home heating oil, which is very similar to diesel.

The only thing I can think of is refineries are running at 100% capacity (thanks environmentalists for stopping any new ones from being built for the last 30 years). Maybe they're allocating more production to gasoline and less to diesel (less supply=higher price).

[Jughead]

24 years in the auto market and Ive never seen anything like it...First time ever Im really scared.....We are doomed.............Ive seen 17%interest 1985 sold like crazy.... This is very hard on the Jug family and I'm not sure we will make it.......Everything you buy is going up big time........:down:

[led37zep]

Hang in there Juggy.

[Gvac]

Most of the cars in Europe run on diesel, and the refineries are concentrating on producing a cleaner burning (and less stinky) diesel that's virtually sulfur free. I think the increased demand along with the cost of producing the newer variety probably has something to do with it being so expensive.

Volkswagen is introducing a diesel car later this year that gets better gas mileage and produces less emissions than a Toyota Prius hybrid, so it appears this newer, cleaner diesel may be the wave of the future.

[DiabloSammich]

Most of the cars in Europe run on diesel, and the refineries are concentrating on producing a cleaner burning (and less stinky) diesel that's virtually sulfur free. I think the increased demand along with the cost of producing the newer variety probably has something to do with it being so expensive.

Volkswagen is introducing a diesel car later this year that gets better gas mileage and produces less emissions than a Toyota Prius hybrid, so it appears this newer, cleaner diesel may be the wave of the future.



That's great. I'll just load four oak trees, 10 yards of mulch and 4 amigos in to my Volkswagen. That won't suck at all.

[Devo37]

i'm pretty sure you can just add some water to regular unleaded to turn it into diesel.

mind you, i'm not a trained automobile mechanic.

[scottinnj]

No No No Devo. You got it all wrong.

You take used oil from your lawmower and add a bottle of Karo Corn Syrup.

Willie Nelson showed me. 100 MPG, guaranteed.

[IMSlacker]

Like Gvac said, the new ultra low sulfur diesel is more expensive to produce. Also, demand for diesel is less elastic than for gasoline, so the price tends to go up faster.

[underdog]

You get better gas mileage from diesel. Therefore, the gas companies teamed up and made it really expensive so people wouldn't switch from regular gas cars to diesel cars and to punish the people who had diesel cars already.

Oh, and to punish the truckers. Fuck them.

[scottinnj]

It's also partially taxes. The federal tax for diesel is much higher then for gas, and some states have some really high taxes on diesel.

New Jersey is still one of the low ones, 3 cents higher then the 10.5 cents for gasoline.

Connecticut is very high, diesel tax for them is 37 cents.

Edit: federal tax on diesel is 24.4 cents a gallon, verses 18.4 cents a gallon for gas.

[scottinnj]

BTW, that's not a call from me to have a fuel tax "holiday"

The reason diesel is higher then gasoline on the federal side is because most of the diesel is used by tractor trailers and heavy trucks that put more wear on the road then cars and light trucks.

[Philly Franko]

trying to create a food and supplies shortage to scare people into giving up more of thier rights...Close the borders, stop scaring hard working people like us...stock up on water and food soon...should get ugly by the Fall and football season...2 months till football..... Oh Yeah...B'Jibi you there?

[earthbrown]

I think everyone missed it....

Oil companies dealing in America have a problem, and that is the bad press involved with the high oil prices.

Back when gas started going sky high, diesel flipped.

IMHO, the oil companies purposely did this, in order to protect their profits.

They do this BECAUSE, most people are stupid and dont understand that diesel price being $4.80+ per gallon simply raises the cost of store bought goods, as I can 100% say, as the fuel has gone up, my boss has raised the rate, thus costing you more to buy the products I ship.

Transportation must use diesel, I cannot stop using or cut down on my diesel, I have to use a certain amount to get my job done.

I dont care much about gas price anyway, it is still cheaper than europe, seeing europe is 1euro per liter, which translates to $1.55 so like $6 a gallon for gas in europe.

If retards stopped driving SUV's to commute solo to work, maybe the gas would go down.

K

[underdog]

I think everyone missed it....

Oil companies dealing in America have a problem, and that is the bad press involved with the high oil prices.

Back when gas started going sky high, diesel flipped.

IMHO, the oil companies purposely did this, in order to protect their profits.

They do this BECAUSE, most people are stupid and dont understand that diesel price being $4.80+ per gallon simply raises the cost of store bought goods, as I can 100% say, as the fuel has gone up, my boss has raised the rate, thus costing you more to buy the products I ship.

Transportation must use diesel, I cannot stop using or cut down on my diesel, I have to use a certain amount to get my job done.

I dont care much about gas price anyway, it is still cheaper than europe, seeing europe is 1euro per liter, which translates to $1.55 so like $6 a gallon for gas in europe.

If retards stopped driving SUV's to commute solo to work, maybe the gas would go down.

K

What the fuck is going on that earthbrown is making sense? And he made another post that was funny?

Mikeyboy, I'm scared.

[scottinnj]

What the fuck is going on that earthbrown is making sense? And he made another post that was funny?

Mikeyboy, I'm scared.

He's coming around. You guys forget around 3200 posts ago, I was a comeplete dickhead.

[TeeBone]

The bulk of our military machines, vehicles and equipment run on diesel. This is a contributing factor as well.

[Gvac]

I was a comeplete dickhead.

Was? :ohmy:

[sailor]

why not convert your diesel to run on waste vegetable oil? seriously, one of the engineers at my job was just talking about this yesterday (i can't remember the name of the group he was with or i'd post their info). the car/truck would run on diesel for about 10 minutes to heat up the vegetable oil, then you can switch the fuel source over. you switch it back to diesel right before the end of your trip to purge the veg oil out of the engine. here's one of the many sites (http://www.greasecar.com/) on this i found this morning. he said it costs about $1k to convert your engine and you make this up within the first year.

[Bulldogcakes]

IMHO, the oil companies purposely did this, in order to protect their profits.

But then one company decided they wouldn't play along, and stole all the business away from the other guys. Or the US companies decided to do this, but then realized that CITGO is run by Venezuela, BP by. . . well . . . I'll let you guess, and Lukoil by Russians. So the foreign competitors got all the biz and the US companies went bankrupt.

Its called a free market. Your conspiracy theories would make a great Hollywood script, but sound pretty childish to anyone who knows anything about business.


They do this BECAUSE, most people are stupid
. . . .

[Knowledged_one]

I thought i had read that diesel is more expensive because US oil refineries are sending diesel overseas because Europe runs mostly on diesel so the US companies can make more shipping diesel to Europe then keeping it here

Thus there is less diesel here meaning price has gone way up

[RhinoinMN]

Here ya go Diablo (http://www.greasecar.com/)

Start cruising your local diners.

[DolaMight]

Trickle down economics. Truck Stop Hookers have passed the extra fuel costs onto the consumer. The cost of a rimmy has increased 25%. Truckers then pass that extra cost to the consumer. That's why your fresh produce is so expensive now.

[RhinoinMN]

Trickle down economics. Truck Stop Hookers have passed the extra fuel costs onto the consumer. The cost of a rimmy has increased 25%. Truckers then pass that extra cost to the consumer. That's why your fresh produce is so expensive now.

Is it really fresh now? The thought of a trucker getting a rimmy and then offloading my produce is disturbing.

[Knowledged_one]

Trickle down economics. Truck Stop Hookers have passed the extra fuel costs onto the consumer. The cost of a rimmy has increased 25%. Truckers then pass that extra cost to the consumer. That's why your fresh produce is so expensive now.

What about the cost of glory holes?

[DolaMight]

What about the cost of glory holes?

Do truck stops have those? If they do they've experienced a whopping 32% increase.

[RhinoinMN]

Do truck stops have those? If they do they've experienced a whopping 32% increase.

That is exactly what the fuel surcharge is here right now. Coincidence? I think not.

[Drunky McBetidont]

where's the petrol?


http://thesalmonfarm.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/Ubuntu7.10isnotquitereadyforprimetime_8112/MelGibsonMadMax.jpg

[TeeBone]

http://www.youloveben.com/Thumbnails/Humongous.png

Leave the gas!!!

[Knowledged_one]

http://www.youloveben.com/Thumbnails/Humongous.png

Leave the gas!!!

Miss Kaisersosay50

[SatCam]

Do truck stops have those? If they do they've experienced a whopping 32% increase.

Are you kidding me? If anything glory hole pricing has gone down 30-40% since the 90s. The truckers stopped using the glories and started using the more expensive, more personal truck stop hookers when the nation was prosperous a decade ago. In response, glory holes reduced their prices to try to bring truckers back to their lost art.