Why does diesel cost more than gasoline?

There's a good reason gasoline powered big trucks died out several decades ago. Nothing is more efficient than diesel. If you had a gas powered truck you'd be driving something embarassingly and sluggishly underpowered, difficult to cool, and be burning almost twice as much fuel to get the same job done. You just cannot get any torque out of a gasoline powered motor. Compare horespower and torque ratings on two similar size and output motors - gas versus diesel. A gas motor at 500 hp would be pushing it to put out 550 ft lbs of torque while a diesel motor of 500 horse could easily put out 800+ ft lbs. Compare hp/tq rating of a corvette to say a 3/4 ton diesel pickup and you will see what I'm talking about.

 

Rollin Coal hit the nail on the head. Think of torque as a tug of war. One end of the rope representing torque consists of 5 large guys. On the other end, is gas. Consisting of 2 scrawny midgets. The rope is the load.

You get the point.

 

ok what about powered by natural gas? iv seen a few rigs out there running nat gas.

 

I saw a Pepsi truck with the powered by natural gas logo on it ( a local truck). I had to ask because it had fuel tanks and sure sounded like a diesel. He explained that it was diesel just had natural gas assist to improve mileage. As far as I know a practical application of straight natural gas wouldn't work for the same reasons stated above.

Diesel is a world commodity and that world demand is what drives the prices. Ask some of our fellow truckers from around the world what they are paying. ( they're here on the forums) Not that the higher prices here aren't hurting us all but we pay nothing compared to what some of them pay.

 

Ever driven a gasser? I have. You don't want to.

 

I don't want this thread to wind up in the Politics section, but the BIGGER question to me is WHY with all of the "green" energy programs that have been pushed and subsidized is diesel OVER 4.00 a freaking gallon?

There are a lot of new trucks now getting 7-8 MPG vs the 4-6 they used to get, cars over all are have shrunk considerably over the last 5 years. You have windmills on every #### stretch of road imaginable.

EVERY mid west state has at least a couple of ethanol plants around, and on top of that people ARE conserving more now than ever before because most simply DON'T have the extra coin.

Not to mention but the worldwide economy is still in the dumps, so WHY IS FUEL SO #### EXPENSIVE?

 

If you want to truck, you HAVE to buy fuel ... regardless how it is priced. You can't cut back or "reduce your trips" as gasoline consumers can. i.e. the world diesel refiners know this and they know they have the US and global trucking community over a barrel. You'll notice the disparity between Regular unleaded and diesel will vary from 40 cents to 60 cents in the US. I contend refiners use diesel to cushion the drop in cash flow lost during rapid gasoline declines.

But what we all need to understand is the huge need for governments to tax any energy product. And thinking that if consumption is decreased, so will your tax bill is simply wrong. If diesel/gasoline consumption drops by 15% and is simply replaced by CNG for instance, CNG will rise accordingly, and at some point a new or higher tax is going to be levied to offset the reduced consumption (taxes paid).

 

Lots of factors, supply/demand, importantly one that everyone seems to forget is inflation. Don't know if you've noticed all the shrinking package sizes in grocery store shelves for the same price as the old package with a couple of oz's more, or even for a higher marked up price in the smaller sized package. Look at a "half gallon" carton of orange juice, surprise, it's not a half gallon anymore.. Inflation... A hidden tax by design meant to steal wealth from you..

 

The US does not have the refining capacity for the amount of diesel we use. In the past, we were able to buy excess diesel from other countries. Now, as their diesel usage has increased, they no longer have excess to sell us.

So, as Autocar said, it is simply a matter of supply and demand and since the oil companies can make so much more with the current set up, there is not much incentive to build additional capacity, in addition to the cost of meeting EPA regulations.

 

and the gulf production has dropped while the tropical storm Isaac is here, and I assume refining onshore has stopped too.