Diesel Fuel Prices

     

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The American trucking industry will probably never again see the historical pricing pattern of diesel fuel prices being used as the main determination of diesel fuel price fluctuations. 

The historical lower than gasoline prices except in cold winters when demand for heating oil pushed diesel fuel prices higher can still impact diesel gas prices but it has company as there are new factors to consider. 

These days an owner operator, a small fleet owner and the owner of large transportation companies definitely need to know more than if it is going to be a really cold winter.

These new major factors discussed below will be controlling diesel fuel prices for decades to come.

Whether you own one truck or a hundred semi-trucks, you need to stay up to date on these new important price changing factors.

Do you think China's frantic purchasing pace taking place around the world on a daily basis to secure and control larger and larger fuel contracts will impact your price at the pump? Their willingness to bid up the oil contract prices along with their insatiable desire to secure mineral and scrap metal contracts around the world should make the next two decades very interesting.

How about the lack of European and American diesel fuel refining capacity at any given time affecting the price at the pump?

Use The Diesel Fuel Price Links To The Major Travel Centers Across America and The Weekly EIA Diesel Price Data Shown Below To Plan Your Trip

Weekly Retail On-Highway Diesel Prices  U.S Energy Information Administration - Independent Statistics and Analysis         U.S. On-Highway Diesel Fuel Prices*  (dollars per gallon)           Change from   01/16/12 01/23/12 01/30/12   week ago year ago U.S. 3.854 3.848 3.850    0.002  0.412 East Coast (PADD1) 3.943 3.938 3.945    0.007  0.451   New England (PADD1A) 4.076 4.077 4.088    0.011  0.455   Central Atlantic (PADD1B) 4.031 4.030 4.040    0.010  0.429   Lower Atlantic (PADD1C) 3.853 3.843 3.848    0.005  0.416 Midwest (PADD2) 3.746 3.736 3.734    -0.002  0.335 Gulf Coast (PADD3) 3.777 3.774 3.776    0.002  0.392 Rocky Mountain (PADD4) 3.823 3.817 3.816    -0.001  0.420 West Coast (PADD5) 4.037 4.037 4.033    -0.004  0.500   West Coast less California 3.945 3.938 3.930    -0.008  NA   California 4.116 4.121 4.120    -0.001  0.508 *prices include all taxes         * The publication of Low Sulfur On-Highway Diesel Prices at the U.S. level was discontinued December 8, 2008. At that time, the Low Sulfur Diesel (LSD) price estimates at the U.S. level no longer met accuracy requirements due to a diminishing number of stations selling LSD as a result of the Environmental Protection Agency's regulations on on-highway diesel fuel. EIA continued to collect LSD prices from the retail outlets in the survey sample and included them in the average prices of all types of diesel. As of July 26, 2010, there were no outlets reporting Low Sulfur On-Highway Diesel (LSD) fuel prices on EIA’s price survey. As a result, the two price series have converged and the Ultra Low Sulfur price is now represented by the Average All Types price.   *Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (July2010)  http://www.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/wohdp/diesel.asp

Major Factors Influencing Diesel Fuel Prices

While the cost to produce diesel fuel is less than producing gasoline, the contributing factors below will be the major issues to impact diesel fuel prices for the rest of the 2010 with some of the factors continuing to impact diesel prices for the next decade or even longer.

• Expect the present on-highway diesel fuel tax of 24.4 cents/gallon which is 6 cents per gallon higher than the gasoline tax to go even higher to meet the new federal requirements for transition to less polluting, lower-sulfur diesel fuels in the United States. 

The requirements of this federal law passed in 2006 must be met by the end of the 2010.

• Implementation of an economy‐wide cap‐and‐trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050 will find it's way into an excuse for even higher diesel fuel taxes in the years ahead. 

• Increasing international demand for diesel fuel to power the rapidly growing number of diesel fueled consumer vehicles and big rigs in China, India, Latin America and Europe will continue to drive up diesel fuel prices in the coming decades. 

• United States and global refining capacity will be a factor that seems to always be the excuse to drive up prices during the period of high economic growth. Are these oil executives not smart enough to anticipate high demand or is it their favorite excuse while laughing all the way to the bank? 

• The American federal government will certainly look at adding even more excise fuel taxes for diesel and regular gasoline in the future to pay for the unprecedented and un-sustainable massive federal deficit threatening the American way of life. 

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