Washington, D.C., gridlock put diesel fuel for home heating systems and transportation in a precarious position heading into winter. The U.S. finds itself with depleted diesel stockpiles that plummeted to a 20-year low.
It’s essential to understand that the diesel products used to heat homes and power commercial motor vehicles are basically interchangeable. The country has a long-standing policy of maintaining a healthy Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in the event of a shortage or other national emergency. According to reports by the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. has just enough reserve fuel to meet demand for only 31.2 days. Given the volatile supply chains and reduction in domestic oil production from its high-water mark of 12,966 barrels per day in Nov. 2019 to 11,307 in July 2021, the specter of energy shortages has many worried.
The average price of diesel recently hit $3.58 in a cost hike not experienced since 2014. Of major concern heading into winter is what everyday Americans will do if global supply chain disruptions and domestic shortages cause prices to exceed sustainability. Consumers are already feeling the brunt of higher fuel costs as freight rates surge and retailers pass along the cost of doing business. But what may be even troubling is the fact Congress and the White House failed to avert the dangerously low reserves in 2020.
The Trump Administration announced it would take advantage of the low cost of fuel in 2020 to replenish the U.S. reserves. At the time, fuels costs were bottoming out as the pandemic shuttered business and demand was increasing low.
“It is a fantastic idea. The SPR is one of the few levers that the U.S. can pull in times of oil market tumult,” Again Capital partner John Kilduff reportedly said at the time. “It has served the country well when supplies get tight or otherwise become unavailable during times of natural disasters or geopolitical turmoil. Releases of supplies have served to short-circuit price rallies in the past, and this filling may well serve to ebb the current sell-off.”
Despite the call to maximize the fuel safety net, Congress declined to include funding in its $2 trillion stimulus package. In the past, presidents have tapped the SPR for wide-reaching reasons that include stabilizing trucking costs to stave off inflation and helping everyday families get through harsh winters.
The current shortfall couldn’t come at a worse time. Farmers are hard at work using tractors and equipment to harvest massive corn crops and power plants are turning to heating fuel as natural gas prices surge even higher. It appears the poor planning in the nation’s Capitol has yet again set the plate for a perfect storm that could cost freight carriers and American families dearly as temperatures drop.
Sources: reuters.com, daily.energybulletin.org
Futures fuel stock contracts show a gap of $5.96 to $11.52 per gallon, now you know why.
They will get their global reset by whatever means is necessary, regardless of the cost
Let’s go branden
But at least there are no more mean tweets right ?
More reason to hurry tf up and get these hydrogen fuel cell and battery electric trucks, out on these roads. Not just to reduce the need for oil, but also because the damn climate crisis is not some myth or made up political issue, and us humans better change accordingly. Or else some of those disaster dystopia movies are gonna be manifesting in our realities.
Righteous One, we know who you voted for, and it’s not very righteous at all.
How are you going to charge those batteries when our current electrical system simply can not handle the load. For crying out loud an ice storm in Texas had millions without power and shut down a significant portion of the power grid.
AOC said we only have 12 years so what’s the hurry. Live free and live happy for the next 12 years. Oh, it rained today and now the sun is shining. Climate changed today
Really? Did you graduate from middle school? I’d you did, you would know there is a difference between weather and climate!
Hey Righteous One, What are we gonna do with the batteries that take a billion years to decompose? and where are we going to put them all? Oh yeah, lets sell it to China so they can dump it in our ocean. Hey Righteous One, How much is it gonna cost me to replace the batteries in my Rig?. Cause don’t you know those batteries will only charge up so many times and have a tendency to explode. Hey Righteous One. How are you gonna wipe your ass when you find out that the truck delivering shit paper to your self righteous Democratic ass, Is gonna take 3 times as long to get to you because now I have to stop for 12 hours to charge my batteries instead of 10 minutes to fuel up. Oh wait, I will spend an additional 24 hours waiting in line behind trucks so that I can charge up.
Whatta stewnod you are hah
Where will you get the fuel to charge all these electric vehicles from?
That makes know since where in the hell do you thank all of these batteries come from have you ever did a search on lithium batteries look it up if you are smart enough to do it. And where do you think all the plastic comes from. Look it up too stupid
How do you think they charge the batteries?
Hey Righteous one go back under the little rock you came from and then come out when you find reality
Hey, righteous one, how many miles a day is an 80,000 pound semi going to go in a day? Oh, and WHERE are they going to recharge? There is no climate crisis, just a normal cycle pattern. Sheesh.
Well that’s an easy one; IdleAir to the rescue! For a few hundred measly dollars per night you will also get CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, and ABC news channels so you can hear how well this current administration is doing on all fronts and how they are the best thing since sliced bread. 🙄
That clown posts on multiple sites. He likes to show people how dense he is. Probably gets paid by Soros.
Glad to know you have a PhD in climatology there “brilliant one”
Should be two fuel pumps. One for bidumb dummies at $9.00 a gallon. One for real Americans at $2.00 a gallon. Uninformed voting had costs…..
That’d be great if that happened LOL
That’s right they can also pay there fair share since they want to so bad.will just keep our money .
Maybe you should study for your GED on your breaks. That way you could form a cogent and complete sentence. But then, nothing passes through a vacuum, so that might be a waste of time.
Actually I was trying to figure out how something like that would work. Probably as a tax credit, where all the self-righteous environmentalists can pay $10-15/gal and that money can go towards endless solar and wind farms that never pay for themselves and require massive federal subsidies. Then the common person can pay $2-3/gal and by doing so say no to stupid ideas funded by tax dollars. Just not sure how you keep liberals from taking advantage of the system…
Please tell me what a “real American” looks like assmunch.
Let’s go Brandon! Great job so far…
Thanks bitch biden
It is amazing how easy it is to say and believe stupid sh*t when you don’t actually understand what happened, when, or by whom.
These “opinions” here are the exact result of hearing what you want to hear, and ignoring anything that does not confirm your biases. This is why it isn’t worth talking politics with about 85% of Americans. That’s right. 85% – VERY few are at all knowledgeable about even basic facts. THEY’RE LAZY.
They won’t bother to know actual facts, but have no problem spouting off their opinions, even if they are clueless, because it feeds their egos. F’ing dummies. .
The Rightous One is actually a bot. Don’t even indulge it with replies dear blacktop brothers and sisters.
ALL of you right-wing drivers are CORRECT…. But hardly ANY of your grammar and syntax is. C’mon Man! LOL
You asked for it:
An ellipsis only has 3 periods, not 4. No space following an ellipsis, and “but” should not be capitalized.
I’m also concerned about why “man” is capitalized in the second sentence. Traditionally, it would only be capitalized if you are referring to an extremely large audience (such as Mankind) rather than just a colloquial reference such as “what’s up, man?”. I’ll allow artistic license on this last point, and give you an overall B-.
Only kidding. I totally agree with you that some of these comments are painful to read. It could be that most of the people posting are English/second language students. Otherwise, we are DOOMED!
What is diesel fuel?
Good thing my truck runs on man sweat and testosterone… throw in a few broken dreams and a little stress as a fuel treatment. Plenty of those in reserves as well…. especially the stress!