US Diesel prices surpass $5.38 | Hacker News Reader

US Diesel prices surpass $5.38

truckingdive.com

29 pointsBetelbuddy23 comments

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That's US$1.42 per litre for those who don't do gallons.

(still cheap — it's more than double that where I am)

yea but we have a $1 trillion dollars defense budget which is supposed to defend against high diesel prices :)

Or, in this case, cause high diesel prices. It's a... I guess that'd make it a lose/lose, wouldn't it?

The US defence/war budget could be paid entirely out of gasoline and diesel taxes:

$962 billion / 186 billion gallons = $5.17 per gallon ($1.37 per L)

which would double the price, but still pretty cheap

If we were to price in all the externalities of fossil fuels into the retail price it would be a lot more expensive. It's still way too cheap.

"Make war and taxes, not energy" - the new "conservative" hippies or something.

We’re at 2.30€ in Germany (per liter!) right now. So $5.40 per gallon doesn’t sound too bad to me.

I’m aware that the diesel price in the us always has been quite low in contrast to Europe, but still I don’t see the issue.

Its about the structure of input costs into the US economy.

Same way restaurant employees in Germany have a salary, but 80% of US restaurants would close immediately, if their "associates" would not have to survive on tips...

The US has swathes of relatively empty land trucks have to traverse for shipping that dwarf the entire nation of Germany.

Then build railway systems

> Then build railway systems

Unfortunately those aren't made at McDonald's or at any other fast service establishment. In other words they are neither fast nor cheap to build.

If we exclude local commute, the US has a pretty good transportation system, as it is, road transport is indispensable in this mix, at least for now. It would make more sense to convert cars to EV's and use the saved fuel for trucks than to redo the transportation system.

The highways are already there.

Flippant transit-signaling to say "just build railways." The people eating shit for diesel prices have little power to do so lol.

We don't have mass transit to offset the need to drive our vehicles; nor is there much interest in making it happen.

Diesel primarily impacts logistics though, not nearly as much personal transport.

You can cope paying 50$ month per month in diesel if you drive that much.

But at the scale of logistics companies, often tied to fixed pricing it's a tragedy.

~Construction and agriculture also run on diesel~ (edit..OPs comment was germane to the thread, and correct, logistics by large the majority of diesel usage on this report).

https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_cons_821dst_dcu_nus_a.htm

The spikes in fuel costs are enough now to eat the entire profit for a trip, and then some.

Petrol is just s as expensive though

1.7 trillion ton-miles of freight per year is as massive as it gets…

It would be if I had the faintest idea what a ton-mile is. Is it like a firkin-furlong?

What's that in football fields?

Check your info bubble. The US has a superb freight rail system that transports massive amounts of goods. If you’re talking about diesel fuel, you’re talking about freight, and we absolutely do have mass transit for freight… one of the best in the world.

There is almost three times more taxes on gas in Germany than in US

Please be minded that US people tend to tell prices without tax, because it differs from state to state. So it's I think even more... maybe even $6.20...

Gas prices include all the tax. Unlike many other goods, there isn't an additional sales tax on top of the reported price.

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