Fuel cost

[skeets]

Ok maybe someone a lot smarter than I am can answer this for me. I was lucky enough to get a 100 gallons of off road for about 3 bucks a gallon,, great deal,, Now the question is this WHY with out all the highway taxes road tax ICC tax and every other tax they can put on it, is OFF Road still more than regular gas???

 

[85Hokie]

i am sure your remember the day when go ol diesel was CHEAPER than leaded gas? I do, shoot I remember buying gas for 45 cents a gallons.....

Without reseaching it, I think that diesel has to be tweaked more now days, in the past it was just about the same as #2 heating oil, a cut of crude before the step of gas, thus cheaper. Now I think they have to do a little more to decrease the pollution that is emits. If you look on the tag at the pumps. says low bla bla sulfer content......

i too always wondered what happened to the cost too!

 

[85Hokie]

skeets,
looking into it further:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2009/03/why-does-diesel-fuel-cost-so-much/index.htm

at least i had some of the answer right ! :
http://www.factcheck.org/2008/05/diesel-fuel-and-gasoline-costs/

 

[zman8537]

i am sure your remember the day when go ol diesel was CHEAPER than leaded gas? I do, shoot I remember buying gas for 45 cents a gallons.....

I remember as a kid that gas was 27 cents a gallon and that was at a full service gas station and they used to give stuff away when you filled up your tank or got over 8 gallons of fuel to boot! Those were the days! What happened ?
I didn't get to take advantage of those prices as by the time I started driving gas was up around 80-90 cents a gallon. And like you said, diesel was even cheaper yet!

 

[Bluegill]

It wasn't too many years ago diesel was cheaper than gas. Higher global demand and having to make it burn cleaner has driven the price up.

 

[dieseldude]

Not thinking to hard I can recently remember diesel being only slightly more the regular and less then mid and high test gasoline. Just out of curiousity, What's prices going for around everyone? Here it just dropped to $3.69/gal.

As to why its higher demand and refining make sense with the new ULSD.

 

[skeets]

I found regular for 3.19 today diesel still about 3.99

 

[vickark]

Reg unleaded around Houston is about $2.90 and diesel is $3.55
When the low sulphur requirements kicked in it made the process longer to make it and that's what kicked the price up some. All of it is still to high to justify the consumer price.

 

[Eric McCarthy]

With a Sams Club card I've seen reg gas as cheap as 2.80 a gallon. Most other places are around 3.00 to 3.15. I dont understand how my truck takes no more then 15 gallons of gas and no matter then price of 2.90 or 3.15 I still spend $50 to top off the tank.

 

[hodge]

There is lots of supposition on why diesel is higher, and I have read lots of posts and reports on it. It does cost more to produce it today because of the added requirements, but I believe the single factor that drives the price the most is that the government wants to regulate how much diesel is used due to the more harmful combustion byproducts of it. They also regulate the amount of diesels on the road- look at how hard the truck manufacturers (light trucks) have to work to meet standards, and what has been compromised in dependability because of it. Now tractors. Look at how few manufacturers are putting diesel cars and trucks on the road, compared to how many make them for use in other countries? Almost every one builds a diesel, but can't get it to pass emissions regulations here in the US. Because of emissions, they regulate the number of consumer diesels on the road through stringent requirements and higher fuel costs. Between the reduced economy on pickups (due to hard to meet regulations), the added cost of that diesel engine in a new truck, and the higher cost of diesel, it no longer pays to buy a diesel pickup unless you tow real heavy or drive a lot of miles a year. A friend that works for Ford told me that they did a study, and concluded that you needed to drive 32,000 miles a year to cost justify a powerstroke- and that was more than 10 years ago.
My daughter drives an 03 Jetta TDI- great power, extremely durable engine, and on her worse day she gets 48 mpg. I'd take that any day over a hybrid, and the added expense of diesel fuel is offset by the staggering fuel economy.
You'd think that the government would be more in favor of diesel, if it is in a clean burning engine/exhaust system. You don't have the adverse effects with biodiesel like you do ethanol-enriched gas, and you can completely manufacture diesel fuel out of most any organic material. Why not invest in a fuel that you can manufacture, versus one that you have to drill for and deplete supplies?
I think the price for diesel is mostly political in nature. I could be wrong- it happens more than I want it to. But, that's what I believe.

 

[Eric McCarthy]

Rudolphus Diesel originally designed his engine to run off peanut oil, which was not available in bulk at the time.

 

[Frank46]

Diesel fuel at the local chevron was $3.59 haven't seen it that low in a long time. Gas was $2.97 for regular. Frank

 

[JGL]

Here in New Brunswick, Canada, diesel sells for $1.36 per litre, or $6.17/ gal. When I bought my L2250 in 1986, 5 gallon can of diesel was $14.20, Now the same can cost $32.70 Reg gas sells for $1.20 a litre, or 1.20 x 4.54= $5.44/gal.

 

[JGL]

Here in New Brunswick, Canada, diesel sells for $1.36 per litre, or $6.17/ gal. When I bought my L2250 in 1986, 5 gallon can of diesel was $14.20, Now the same can cost $32.70 Reg gas sells for $1.20 a litre, or 1.20 x 4.54= $5.44/gal.

 

[armylifer]

The cost of Diesel fuel varies widely in my local area. Today I bought fuel at the local Fred Meyer for $3.73 per gallon. I also saw prices as high as $4.29 per gallon at the Circle K. Chevron had it for $4.09 per gallon for cash and $4.19 for credit. Safeway had it for $3.99 per gallon. The point is, the price seems to be what people will pay for it, not based on demand. If you shop at convenience stores like Circle K and buy fuel there, you will likely pay more than if you buy at places like Costco, Fred Meyer, and Safeway. In my experience, if you buy at the convenience store you will get cigerattes, sandwiches and beer quickly while you re-fuel but you will get ripped off on the price of fuel.

 

[SteveF]

Skeets I know I am NOT smarter than you but I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night... ha! Diesel is in part more expensive than gasoline because of supply and demand which leads to economies of scale in the production of gasoline. Government regulations from the Clinton administration drove increasingly lower requirements in ppm of sulphur which also increased production cost. And, the worst contributors to cost are the commodity day traders buying and selling energy futures and hedge vehicles that artificially manipulate the true value of the product.

 

[adventure bob]

Heres what I believe, may or may not be true but...
If you want to know why the dredges of the gas production process are more expensive than the primary product you merely have to ask yourself: What doesn't the big three produce? You have to ask what industries benefit form diesel being so high...You have to ask who would actually benefit from diesel being the same price as gas...
First and foremost Detroit doesn't produce a small efficient diesel. Who does? Everybody else. Even if the cost of diesel was really close to gas it is more economically feasible for diesel that gets 42 MPG than any other "alt fuel choice" The distribution network exists, it produces more energy per volume than ethanol, and it produces pollution on par with gas. Bio produces less and still has the energy per volume of diesel. As opposed to ethanol that only contains about half the enrgy of gas, 1.0 US gallon of ethanol is 76,100 BTU, compared to 114,100 BTU in gasoline.
Ethanol and hybrids are the primary winners in the equation.
Who pays for diesel being so expensive? You and I do and its taxation at its finest: The high cost of diesel is past on to the consumer of everything that is shipped. If hybrids were the answer the Europeans would have jumped all over hybrids years ago, but they didn't, they went diesel.

 

[SteveF]

Even with the disparity in cost per gallon between gasoline and diesel, my experience is this:

The fuel cost to operate my 1997 Ram 1500 5.9 L gasoline engine is $0.36/mile.

The fuel cost to operate my 2006 Ram 3500 5.9 L Cummins diesel is $0.25/mile.

I won't even get into torque...

 

[SteveF]

Adventure bob, with all due respect, the cost of a gallon of gasoline or diesel is about two thirds crude oil. One barel of oil is 42 gallons. If oil is at say $102/barrel, that's about $2.43/gal. If the cost of fuel (at the pump) is say $3.43/gal that leaves $1.00 for production, inventorying, distribution, and some profit at all the steps.

 

[adventure bob]

Steve im not sure I get your point...In fact I think you've just restated mine. If I take your position correctly theres no reason on the planet that diesel should be more expensive than gas, but lo and behold that's not what the pump shows. Every 44 gal barrel of oil produces about 19 gallons of liquid that is refined is "motor grad fuel" and 10 Gal of distillate known as diesel and fuel oil as a byproduct of making gasoline. Diesel is a byproduct not a direct production and therefore the profit margin is much larger.