WTF fuel prices

[Joe Ricard]

Yesterday 2.75 for Diesel.
This Morning 2.99 at the same station. Did Tuesday elections already have an affect.


OK, yea I am sure you left coasters are thinking 3 bucks a gallon is still good but damn 24 cents overnight?

[cnielsen]

$3.50-$3.70 for diesel in Seattle. Regular is still just under 3 bucks... I'll never understand why diesel is that much more expensive when it's easier/cheaper to refine

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by cnielsen

$3.50-$3.70 for diesel in Seattle. Regular is still just under 3 bucks... I'll never understand why diesel is that much more expensive when it's easier/cheaper to refine

Diesel isn't necessarily easier or cheaper to refine.

Today's diesel is very clean and it is hard and expensive to get rid of all that sulfur.
Plus the overwelming cost of fuel is not the manufacturing process, it's the raw materials.
If a refinery is paying $2 a gallon for crude oil, and the manufacturing cost is 20 cents, well you can see what makes the most difference.
Also, taking crude and turning it into gasoline is a net volume increase because of the lower density, so the conversion rate by volume favors gasoline.

But the real reason diesel is more expensive than gas is supply. There was a time not long ago when we could import all the diesel we wanted for a very low price. Not anymore.
We have competition for it overseas is china, india, russia, etc. They are using more and more and that creates a false market.


But .... realistically it should only be about 20 cents more. That's what the average price difference is across the US, 20 cents.
U.S. Gasoline and Diesel Retail Prices

If you are paying more than $3.30 for diesel you need to find another station.
PADD 5 average retail price for diesel is $3.24
Retail Prices for Diesel (On-Highway) - All Types

[VINMAN]

Diesel here in NJ is anywhere from $2.95 up to $3.40 depending on the area, and still going up!

My trucks gonna be sitting alot this winter!

[Joe Ricard]

Wife said we will be putting an order in for a new Mini Cooper VERY soon. Her RX-8 gets worse MPG that the Truck and it burns Premium.

We already car pool 4 days a week. Going racing 2 times a month is what burns the fuel bill.

[fastfredracing]

I am still patting myself on the back for buying a gas dually. I needed a power house to pull the occasional bobcat, or mini escavator, and had my heart set on a big diesel, but after a lot of thought, I bought gas. Mostly for the cost of purchase, and the cost, and ease of maintanence. Hell, I built my 463 for about $1600.00. My buddy just paid that just for the computer on his cummins. I can pull anything, and still get 10 mpg loaded to the hilt. I get 12 unloaded. I dont do a lot of long hauling so that extra 5 mpg that I would have got for the diesel just would not have paid off for me.
I still get a little depressed when I am screaming along at 65 mph, at 3400 rpm and get passed by a diesel going 85, not even breaking a sweat, but I'll live with it.

[Evans, Marv]

Diesel all over this area is around $3.30/gal. At the height of the diesel and gas prices a year to two years ago, I was paying out $400 to $600 a month to operate my F350 PSD. Now that I don't have to drive it 100 miles per day, 6 days a week and let it set for days at a time without having to drive it, I feel rich. I'm thinking people who have said fuel and gasoline prices will be in the $6 to $10 range in years ahead may be right.

[Joe Ricard]

I put 20,000 miles on my truck in 1 year. 1/2 of that is towing 500 miles or more per trip. 16 MPG towing the race car, and "blasting by gassers"

20-21 MPG unloaded @ 70 MPH.

[VINMAN]

Originally Posted by Joe Ricard

20-21 MPG unloaded @ 70 MPH.

Thats about what I'm pulling with my Dodge. If i keep it between 60 and 65 on cruise I can squeeze mid 20's out of it.

The newer diesels dont get as good milage as the older ones.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

I'm thinking people who have said fuel and gasoline prices will be in the $6 to $10 range in years ahead may be right.

After what happened this past tuesday, the odds of that happening across the country diminished and the odds of that happening in kalifornia skyrocketted.

It will happen here. No doubt in my mind unless they stop and un-do what they are doing.

[cgarr]

I wait for the price to go up then gas up, that way it does not take so long to put in $20

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by cgarr

I wait for the price to go up then gas up, that way it does not take so long to put in $20

Gud plan

[Joe Ricard]

Originally Posted by cgarr

I wait for the price to go up then gas up, that way it does not take so long to put in $20

You mean $100

Truck swallowed 75.00 and the pump shut off.

[Rusty Heap]

V10 Dodge Gas truck here, my 4x4 Viper..........488 cu inch of fun in a 6200 pound truck that will do 0 to 40 in under 4 seconds.

Bought it new and zero regrets NOT getting a lumpy noisy Diesel you can hear a block away. Yes the newer Diesels are quieter, but still that is an expensive engine option new from the dealer.

Yes Diesels get better milage, but at the time of my truck purchase that was a $6500 engine option. I crunched the numbers and figured you'd pay off the engine upgrade via better MPG at 100,000 miles. ONLY then you can really say "oh goody look at all the money I'm saving"........plus in many areas, Diesel is actually sorta hard to find, where-as gas is on every street corner.

Gas $$$ is only money, but yeah with a 35 gallon tank long road trips cost a bit of change.

4x4 Viper:

[artplumber]

Not that hard to understand. A few forces at work.

Fed about to inject more money into system to further try to jump start the economy, thus devaluing the dollar further. People don't want dollars so much, and also like commodities to hedge the devaluation.

Wall street happy with gridlock in DC (with the GOP owning a branch of govt), therefore think that business will be better as well - more demand for crude.

Crude prices go up, yielding an immediate reaction at the pump (unlike when crude goes down, that usually takes three weeks to work its way through the system to the consumer, thus padding the oil co's profits).

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by artplumber

Not that hard to understand. A few forces at work.

Fed about to inject more money into system to further try to jump start the economy, thus devaluing the dollar further. People don't want dollars so much, and also like commodities to hedge the devaluation.

Wall street happy with gridlock in DC (with the GOP owning a branch of govt), therefore think that business will be better as well - more demand for crude.

Crude prices go up, yielding an immediate reaction at the pump (unlike when crude goes down, that usually takes three weeks to work its way through the system to the consumer, thus padding the oil co's profits).

LOL, you really think oil companies control the price at the pump? ROFLMAO

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by artplumber

Crude prices go up, yielding an immediate reaction at the pump (unlike when crude goes down, that usually takes three weeks to work its way through the system to the consumer, thus padding the oil co's profits).

Kinda like the way the price of plywood went up right after Katrina. All plywood, not just the stuff you use to build houses.

[Robert Adams]

Not sure what forces are at work when fuel of any sort jumps that much from one day to the next. But it does seem to occur with greater frequency than it used to. All sorts of cynical options do come to mind.
However the main reason for higher diesel prices over gas prices at the pump come from taxes levied and not higher or lower production cost. Owning 2 or 3 diesels back in the 80s and early 90s, I discovered that the amount of taxes (Fed, State & maybe local) added onto a gallon of diesel was almost half the cost of the retail price depending upon your state and it's a whole bunch higher than the % added to gasoline. Lobbyists at work no doubt? I don't recall the exact % amount levied by each govt entity, but it was and I believe still remains significant. I believe the main reason given at the time it was started back in the 70s was these taxes were imposed on Diesel in particular as a way of generating revenue from the trucking industry without a blatant direct tax on the rest of us to repair & maintain infrastructure. Looking at the major roads around our neck of the woods I think we came up short on the deal!
No question the trucking industry benefits greatly from the interstate road system, but I'm thinking with the state things are in now, a tax on diesel is totally ass backward in light of trying to foster less dependence on oil. The use of diesel in and of itself obviously doesn't cure dependence, but no question it does achieve higher MPG and therefor contributes to it in the long term.
Anyway, my cents worth and sorry to bore you all with my ranting. Just tics me off when I see something that seems so against our best interests, not to mention the price gouging originally questioned.
Now I'm curious about how the darn tax structure actually breaks down? Have to look into it.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by milt

Kinda like the way the price of plywood went up right after Katrina. All plywood, not just the stuff you use to build houses.

That was done by the retailer, not the manufacturer.

[john70t]

Ha, these hats do stop space waves!

You heard it. A national conspiracy by retailers.
(Manufacturers obvously having no downwards control)