[RonMN]

stealing heating oil from an old woman on a fixed income

stealing money from the hurricane relief fund

Yup...real soft landing we're gonna have!

[Leanan]

Came across this "odd news" story:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12072827/

It's about a man who accidentally left his wife behind at Wal-Mart. They were retirees, driving a motor home; thought she was in back and drove off while she was in the store.

But this is the part that caught my attention. Turns out, he couldn't come back to get her, because he was out of fuel and stranded.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')tate police had been alerted to watch for the motor home, and officers in Tucumcari spotted it that evening, out of fuel on a side street. A snowstorm and a backup of tractor-trailers had made diesel fuel hard to come by in the eastern New Mexico community.

[PeakOiler]

One must remember that there isn't much of anything in eastern New Mexico/West Texas, except the wind and cacti, and perhaps the one small gas station located in the middle of nowhere didn't order enough. Those are the places that have those signs: "Warning: No Gas Stations for the next 150 miles".

[SoothSayer]

I feel that car fuel and plane fuel usage will be cut back somewhat by higher crude prices.

However diesel fuel used by trucks may be less easy to cut back on:

Trucks = The economy

Can refineries selectively produce diesel to keep the trucks running?

Will the trucking fleets be the first to get hit badly by high prices and/or shortages?

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SoothSayer', 'I') feel that car fuel and plane fuel usage will be cut back somewhat by higher crude prices.

However diesel fuel used by trucks may be less easy to cut back on:

Trucks = The economy

Can refineries selectively produce diesel to keep the trucks running?

Will the trucking fleets be the first to get hit badly by high prices and/or shortages?

[Pablo2079]

I was filling up with gas last night and noticed a warning on the diesel pump. It stated that it was illegal to use that fuel in any 2007 or greater diesel and that significant engine damage might result. I assume that it has something to do with the sulfur content, but where is one supposed to fill up with a new diesel?

And why is it always Diesel #2??? Is Diesel #1 sold somewhere? Or #3?

[AgentR]

A roll out of that ultra low sulfer stuff is underway, I'd bet once the station finishes out their supply of old diesel, and gets a shipment of the new stuff, the sign will go away.

[MD]

My understanding is that diesel #2 is essentially the same as heating fuel without the red dye, and diesel #1 is kerosene.

[emersonbiggins]

Are there any new-reg diesels on the market? If not, then it probably doesn't matter too much, and I'm seeing more of the new diesel pumps all the time. My guess is that by 1Q07, there will be nothing but new diesel at the pumps.

[highlander]

The high sulfur will destroy the scrubbers that had to be installed in newer diesel engines to meet EPA air quality regs, or at least that's what I've been told. Agent R is correct.

[NEOPO]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('highlander', ' ')Agent R is correct.

[Peak_Modernity]

January 07 is when the new lower emissions engines are required to used in new trucks. They use an extensive filtering system for the intake and exhaust and require ultra low sulfur diesel as well as a new type of oil to work properly.

The new engines are supposed to get slightly better fuel mileage too, which is better than the last time engines were "upgraded" and got slightly worse mileage. There's a real concern over maintenance, reliabilty, and dealer support though. Most big companies are buying up as many pre-jan07 trucks as they can afford. The new technology is supposed to add between 6-10,000 dollars to the price of trucks.

More information Here

There's another emissions regulation coming in 2010 as well.

[4dsc]

Why are diesel prices rising so fast?? I'm trying to find it here but with no luck..

[smiley]

Here (europe) it is for two reasons.

1) Diesel only has a low tax premium compared to petrol. So price rises in crude, work through faster in diesel than in petrol.

2) More people are buying diesels, thereby driving up the prices.

[Plantagenet]

http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_retail_price ... px?time=24

[ZombieHordeLeader]

Isn't diesel essentially the same thing as heating oil. So this time of year when refiners switch to making heating oil it would cut into the diesel refining capacity and prices would go up.

[wisconsin_cur]

There are others who understand the process better than I but I believe that the refiners have some discretion in how much gasoline and how much diesel they produce from any given barrel of oil. If gas prices go up they can produce mreo gas and less diesel, thus driving up diesel prices. There are some people on the weekly supplies thread who would be able to give more detail as to whether or not this is happening.

The "good new" is I think the price of diesel should go down quicker in a recession as there are fewer trucks on the road (people will cut down on what they buy before they car pool, at least in my simple logic.

[normal]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('NeoPeasant', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('NonToxic', 'D')oes anyone know why the price of diesel is more than super in some places?

[Graeme]

The peak oil crisis: diesel

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he evidence is mounting that the U.S. might just encounter the first real crisis of the oil depletion age before the year is out.

The crisis at first will be one of spiraling prices for diesel and heating oil, followed by actual shortages here in the United States. In the last two weeks, the wholesale price of heating oil has moved up by nearly 70 cents a gallon and no end is in sight. Many observers are starting to note that what they call “a tight market for distillates” –- the industry’s term for diesel and heating oil – may be what is driving up the price of crude and consequently gasoline.

The reasons for this surge in distillate prices are easy to understand. Conventional oil production, from which distillates are made, has been flat for the last three years while demand from Asia and the Middle East oil producers has been rising rapidly. The trend into higher-mileage diesel powered cars in Europe and other places, which has been underway for many years, is having a major impact. In some European countries, diesels now account for over 70 percent of new car registrations. This change in demand is leaving Europe and a few Asian refiners with a surplus of gasoline but not diesel. The overseas refiners are happy to sell their surplus gasoline to America which still wants prodigious quantities of the stuff. This, believe it or not, helps keep gasoline prices lower than the price of crude suggests it should be, as unusual quantities of gasoline keep arriving at our shores.

Prices for distillates went up and up and inventories went down and down as we are no longer making enough to satisfy the demand even at outrageous prices, and our imports of finished distillates began to drop as everybody in the world wants the stuff. Imports which were running 300-400,000 barrels a day early last year have been about 200,000 barrels a day(b/d) or less in recent weeks. Most of our distillate imports are coming from Canada as nobody else seems willing to sell us this increasingly valuable commodity.

[copious.abundance]

But then again . . .

WSJ
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Refiners Tilt to Diesel Over Gasoline
By Ana Campoy

U.S. refiners by now would be moving full-speed to ramp up gasoline production in advance of the summer driving season, but instead they are trying to maximize output of more-profitable diesel fuel.

The global hunger for diesel, coupled with tight refining capacity, has made diesel one of the few bright spots in the refining business, catapulting prices higher than a parallel rise in gasoline.

Diesel prices were up an additional 18.2 cents last week to a record $4.33 a gallon, a 56% increase over the price at this time last year. Gasoline is climbing, too, but less dramatically.

[...]