What the heck is happening with diesel prices?

[kyle4501]

After doing some work for a refinery & doing a bit of reading, I learned the domestic oil is 'dirtier' than the arab oil - therefore, it cost more to refine it to the EPA standards. Might that be the reason we export it so we can import 'clean' oil?
What about the ever tightening restrictions the EPA is requiring? Those cleaner standards come at a price. . .

I ain't walking, so I'll pay the fuel cost, whatever it is - or - I won't go.
Whenever fuel prices shoot up a drastic amount, traffic lessens & I see more people combining multiple errands into 1 trip. So, it ain't all bad.

BTW, If everyone stayed home, who would be refining the oil? The idea of a boycott having any significant impact seems to be a simpleminded economic viewpoint. Fuel is perishable since it has a shelf life. The local distribution centers rarely have over half a tank & gas stations get multiple fuel deliveries each week, some daily.

The reality is that the cost of a gallon of fuel is quite a bargain even at twice the price when you consider the alternative energy sources.
My kids have first hand experience of the cost of using firewood over natural gas. . . . While I am seeing a nice difference on the power bill, the chain saws, splitter, wood stove, & flue liner cost something to the tune of many years of savings.

[artvonne]

$5 a gallon would be about the point where I might have to park my bus and not use it.  Traveling 4,000 miles would cost $2,800 just for fuel.  

 I bought my Bus with the full knowledge we will likely see $6-8 gallon fuel. I really have no idea how to travel any more economically. Motels at $160 a night stack up fast. Three nights pays for a 100 gallons of fuel at $5 gallon. Having a fridge full of normal food and a galley to cook in saves money not eating fast food. Air Travel has become so expensive, and ishy, its not even a consideration.

 You can plan differently. You can top off your tank weeks, months, even a year in advance. You can drive in the yard half empty on your return. Both of those coupled together can greatly offset your direct trip costs to another time period, so your all up costs are spread out. You can install a second fuel tank, increasing your range, and spread your costs out even further. An additional 100 gallons could give you 700 miles more range. 1400 miles more range on the back end if you come in the yard dry. More range also allows you to find better fuel deals.

 

[artvonne]

The idea of a boycott having any significant impact seems to be a simpleminded economic viewpoint. Fuel is perishable since it has a shelf life. The local distribution centers rarely have over half a tank & gas stations get multiple fuel deliveries each week, some daily.

  The perish-ability of fuel is one of the very reasons a boycott could have such an impact. But thats just my simple mind at work. Were never going to know, because the smart people have all the bright ideas. Like keep paying ever more and do nothing until the whole economy collapses.

  You know what led to the housing crises? Fuel at $4 gallon stopped people from moving to bedroom communities. It stopped everything dead in its tracks. And everytime we see some light at the end of the tunnel, everytime it looks like better times could be around the corner, fuel goes up and kills it. And the housing crisis is what led to the entire financial crisis which has spread world wide. And it can all be blamed on $4 gallon fuel.

[Peter_Crowl]

  I bought my Bus with the full knowledge we will likely see $6-8 gallon fuel. I really have no idea how to travel any more economically. Motels at $160 a night stack up fast. Three nights pays for a 100 gallons of fuel at $5 gallon. Having a fridge full of normal food and a galley to cook in saves money not eating fast food. Air Travel has become so expensive, and ishy, its not even a consideration.  

Where do you stay? $50-$60 a night is what I usually pay for 2 adults. A high end Hotel room is $85-$90.

[Len Silva]

A General Strike, what a great idea.  I thought it was only lefties that thought like that.  Welcome to the enlightened side.

[artvonne]

Where do you stay? $50-$60 a night is what I usually pay for 2 adults. A high end Hotel room is $85-$90.

 I dont stay in motels. But the few I have I would rather spent a bit more. We have a young daughter, I really dont care to stay at the cheapest No-tel we can find. The point is that rather than spend that money in a Motel, thats money you can spend on fuel. Even at $60 a night, thats $600 in 10 nights. Couple tanks of fuel. How else are you going to travel?

 Okay were cheap, we cram the three of us into a pos buzzbox that gets 30 mpg, were going green. Lets say I go up to the cities and back, 1500 round trip. $200 bucks in fuel. I stay in cheap roach infested Motels for 6 nights, $45 bucks a night, $270. Have to eat out, say we eat garbage fast food all week, $40 a day, 7 days, say $280 to eat. Costs me $750 for the week.

 Now lets take the Bus. We get 9 MPG (I hope). Costs me $660 in fuel. No motel, $zero. We cook our own fresh groceries, a weeks worth maybe $100 or so, Costs for the week, maybe $800.

 So we could have saved all of $50 driving a small uncomfortable car crammed in with a weeks worth of stuff eating junk food?

 Seems a no brainer to me. Any increase in fuel I can easily pass off as we could have ate better, stayed in a better motel, etc.. Even if we take Brian's Bus and only get 7.1 MPG, it adds only $185 more. If you stay a few more days and call it motel savings its almost a freebie.

 

[niles500]

Brian - Other than the seasonal refinery change over to increase heating fuel inventories there have been two other recent events - Obama's authorization to dip into the Stategic Petroleum reserve has ended and some refineries have cutback their capacities and/or temporarily shuttered facilities to cut costs - FWIW

[luvrbus]

Fuel in a bus should be the least of a bus owners worry it uses fuel not a thing you can do about it expect pay

We left home one year going to a rally in CO Springs diesel was around 2 bucks a gal by the time we got home it was over 4 bucks.

Some camp grounds cost as much motels we have paid up to 100 bucks a day before, check in Circus Circus in Vegas on a weekend lol, 50 bucks + is about the average now for 50 amp service in the better parks you cannot stay in Walmarts all the time 

[Seayfam]

As soon as I seen this topic pop up, I knew that it was going to touch some nerves and turn political. You can't start a topic like this and not do so!

I'm sorry but, WE NEED TO GET THE "EPA" UNDER CONTROL!!! This is our "BIGGEST" problem.
I have many family and friends up here in Alaska that work for the oil companies. They all say the same thing. They say between the EPA, lawyers, safety inspectors, and other government regulations... It takes them more than three times the man hours to produce the same amount of oil.

If you have a piece of equipment on the job site and it dripped one drop of oil, everything comes to a halt. The piece of equipment goes to the shop to be repaired, the cleanup crew comes in to excavate the "spill" one drop. You deal with the EPA and so on.

Most of the old pipe lines that deliver oil today, don't meet today's EPA standards. So to build new lines by today's standards cost three times as much. To extract oil by today's standards cost three times a much and I can go on and on.

Another example... You get a scratch on the job, you get pulled off the job and go see the local Doc. You may or may not go back to work that day. But you get payed.

They spend a good part of the day trying to make sure they take every safety precaution they can. Which means another guy to watch over you. And also lots of safety meetings every day.
And a safety inspector watching everyone's move, which leads to getting wrote up.

Don't get me wrong, this is all good to a certain extent. But they are overdoing it, and it just costs a lot more now to produce the oil. It's going to have to end, or our economic outlook is not going to be good.

[viento1]

someone along the way said that MEXICO has higher costs? I am surprised but it is good to know, thank you.

[luvrbus]

Depends on where you buy it in Mexico the Baja is about the same as the USA,marine diesel was cheaper in San Diego than Mexico

good luck

[white-eagle]

All of you going on periodic vacations have nothing really to whine about.  How would you like to have your planned full time living screwed up by the ever increasing cost of diesel. 

We planned on going to where some light work was, but basically north in the summer, south in the winter.   

Cost me $1900 to go from Oh to CO and back, probably $1000 just to get to the bus rally. 

Living in a house isn't fun, but living in a bus parked in FL isn't either, or OH.

But we'll have to earn enough to fill it up because i can't change it.

[bobofthenorth]

Your fearless leader just shot you all in the foot by stalling Keystone.  If we end up shipping that oil to the west coast its gone as far as North America is concerned.  Personally I think its a better business decision to send it west but its sure not good for US fuel prices.

[artvonne]

As soon as I seen this topic pop up, I knew that it was going to touch some nerves and turn political. You can't start a topic like this and not do so!

I'm sorry but, WE NEED TO GET THE "EPA" UNDER CONTROL!!!

   Its not gonna happen.  Before the train came along around 1860, everyone traveled by horse or walked. Today you cant get people to drive across town in their comfy car to try and change anything. Could you imagine walking to Washington to be heard? Ha, you couldnt find a 100 people that would do that.

  Its not gonna happen. Nobody cares. You see clowns at the gas station gassing up their jacked up 4X4, squealing their tires out of there after a fill. They just don't care.

[belfert]

Brian - Other than the seasonal refinery change over to increase heating fuel inventories there have been two other recent events - Obama's authorization to dip into the Stategic Petroleum reserve has ended and some refineries have cutback their capacities and/or temporarily shuttered facilities to cut costs - FWIW

Shouldn't the latter two cause both gas and diesel to go up?  Gasoline is staying stable or dropping while diesel prices are going up.  As I mentioned before, when gasoline was $3.59 diesel was only at $3.89 or so.  Now diesel is as high as $4.29 two miles from my house.  I know of almost nobody that heats with fuel oil in Minnesota.  It is either natural gas or propane for the most part.