General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJanuary 17th this year here in the Midwest I
paid $2.77 per gallon for diesel for my truck after my fuel card discount. Retail was $3.19 per gallon. Now on March 14th at the same place I paid $4.25 per gallon after my discount and the retail price was $4.70 per gallon. This is at the cheapest place within 40 miles of me. Many of the fuel stops around me are pricing the discount at more than $4.75 per gallon with retail around $5.49 per gallon. I'm seeing some places with retail diesel prices at $5.69 per gallon.
That 45 cents per gallon means a great deal when you're buying 300 gallons at a time. I would note that the amount of freight has dropped very noticeably which means buying/building etc. is obviously predicted to slow and so that impacts things as well. When you combine this with other factors going forward it doesn't look good at all.
Higher food prices because of deportation of labor, higher diesel costs due to war, higher fertilizer costs due to war combined with shrinking jobs because of people, rightly so, holding back on spending and this begins to look like a grim picture indeed. Keeping in mind that fuel price increases haven't come anywhere near to peaking.
Many of us remember the '70's when prices were up on most everything every time we looked. Day after day and week after week.
So many young people have heard their elders talk about those years but now, sadly, they get the shock of living through that kind of thing.
The announcement of big releases from various countries petroleum reserves gets reported by the media and certainly it helps somewhat but what the media fails to point out is that those releases are not endless and any help from that is quickly used up.
Rhiannon12866
(254,556 posts)At the two closest gas stations near me, passed them tonight on my way home, the prices are now $5.09 and $5.19-a-gallon.
Coldwater
(1,250 posts)
modrepub
(4,077 posts)Are what to expect.
My question is do these "fuel surcharges" actually make it back to the (independent) truckers pumping diesel into their tanks or does it stuck in the sticky fingers of the companies that collect the surcharges? I expect its the later.
When all the COVID inflation was raging, most large companies still reported profits. Back in the 70s and 80 when the first gasoline shocks were occurring, company profits pretty much tanked as fuel prices spiked' so it seemed like it was a shared pain across consumers and businesses. Contrast that with today, most large businesses seem unaffected, while consumers and small businesses suffer.
BumRushDaShow
(168,924 posts)to do a "comparative analysis" of "oil shocks", and this is NOTHING like that. This IS more like the oil embargo of the '70s.
I remember it well because I lived on a main residential street that at the time, had 3 gas stations on the corner of a major intersection (a Sunoco, an Amoco, and and old-fashioned, sidewalk-type Gulf station, with the pumps right next to the sidewalk), with the "odd/even" (license plate) days, and long lines of cars stretched at least 2 blocks past our house (and we were a couple blocks from those stations). And our 8 cylinder station wagon, was lucky to get 8 mpg!
OldBaldy1701E
(11,018 posts)But, we will destroy the planet to drain the last drops of oil and fight other nations for it, rather than figure out new ways to operate the vehicles without the item that they are holding over our heads.
An item that we have been programmed to believe that we have to have and that there are no replacements for it.
But... as usual... the 'head in the sand' methodology seems to be preferred.
BumRushDaShow
(168,924 posts)with the "Inflation Reduction Act", which was actually the largest pro-climate infrastructure law of its kind, ever. And in swoops the GOP and their billionaires, to pretty much torpedo the whole thing.
OldBaldy1701E
(11,018 posts)Sadly, they were not all 'GOP' billionaires.
BumRushDaShow
(168,924 posts)"billionaires" have the "luxury" (pun intended) of being "party-less". They will switch to whatever "party" maximizes their interests.
AverageOldGuy
(3,749 posts)Here's the way farming economics works.
SPRING is time to plant. Farmers hop on their tractors, plant seeds -- all of which involves the cost of seed, fertilizer, weed control, and diesel fuel for the tractors that make several passes over the fields.
Who pays for the seed, fertilizer, weed control chemicals, and diesel fuel? If the farmer has a large bank account, s/he pays cash. But most farming operations go to the local bank and take out a seasonal loan, which they pay off when the crop is harvested in the fall, which means the farmer pays interest on the loan all through the summer from whatever cash s/he has on hand.
However, in increased cost of diesel drives up the price of groceries because of production and transportation costs to produce the food and get it to market. Households cut back on consumption. Demand for farm produce drops. Farmers don't get the same price at harvest time.
Meanwhile, the cost of diesel has continued to go up, meaning the farmer is paying more for every time s/he drives a tractor over the fields for weed control, fertilizer, and harvest.
Comes time to harvest and pay off the crop loan, the crop doesn't not pay off the loan, or the crop pays off the loan but does not leave the farmer with any profit . . . .