Don B said:
Diesel is a byproduct of refining oil. It is a heavy oil compared to gasoline, which is a further refinement of the crude oil.
I know you have to pay $4/gallon, but it is still Collusion.
How about "supply and demand". That hasn't been repealed. Diesel competes with heating oil. This is still heating oil season in most of the country. Once heating season is over, diesel will probably come down some.
The prices are also affected by speculation. Right now, ALL commodities are jumping because they are going up in price and everything else is dropping. It's seen as a "safe haven" for the speculators.
Just who do you think is "colluding"? The big oil companies are getting squeezed as their raw material is going up faster than they can raise the prices of their finished product. If there is collusion, it's by the oil producing dictators.
There are hundreds of oil companies competing around the world, all of them cutthroat. Collusion is not too likely.
Actually, the crude oil prices are heavily influenced by our out of control federal and consumer spending. Globally, oil is priced in U.S. Dollars. The value of the dollar has been dropping to record lows vs. most other currencies. Would YOU sell your oil to someone for the same price today as last year when they were going to pay you with a currency that was worth 30% less? Of course not! You're not stupid, you would expect at least the same payment IN REAL money, not the funny money the Fed is printing.
Our government keeps spending money it doesn't have and consumers keep spending money they don't have. That deflates the value of what we are spending, making it worth less. We are not manufacturing as much REAL things today as we used to, we'd rather buy them cheap from China but what do we have to give China to pay for the goods? More and more debt.
We get a relatively small percentage of our imported oil from unstable governments. Most of our oil into the US comes from Mexico and Canada. Their economy is based on ours, so why is Diesel more expensive than gasoline? In all other parts of the world, Diesel is LESS than gasoline. Is that still Supply vs. Demand? I don't think so.
When dealing with a commodity in tight supply, it doesn't matter if it is a large percentage or small. If oil production was 10% more than demand, prices would fall. But with it running neck and neck,
whoever controls the last 1% controls the price.
Furthermore, even our "friends" Canada and Mexico want more for their oil. High prices is the only thing making Canadian oil available (it makes the oil sands worth developing) but the Canadian governments want more and more royalties for the oil (likewise the state of Alaska). Unfortunately, Alaska and Canada are taking lessons from Chavez and wanting a bigger slice of the payout.
Our government, through lobbyists have chosen the most INEFFICIENT ways to convert energy. Ethanol is a joke! It is a pure political move based upon lobbying. From a scientific perspective, it is a BAD choice. Same with wood chips and the like. There are way more efficient bio material to convert to energy, they are just not politically rigged.
Agreed, but then we have to realize that politics is the whole goal of Washington and has nothing to do with doing the right thing.