Diesel shortage fears drive GOP swipes at Biden energy policy – By Valerie Yurk (Roll Call) / Nov 7, 2022
Analysts blame supply disruptions and lost refinery capacity. GOP blames Biden and Democrats.
The U.S. diesel supply reached its lowest levels since 2008 at the beginning of November, stirring panic over supply chain woes and fuel price increases that have become all too familiar to Americans in 2022.
Energy analysts attribute the shortage to supply disruptions triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and reduced refinery capacity because of regular fall maintenance and the loss of a major East Coast refinery to a 2019 fire. Republicans are citing the shortage as a last-minute campaign jab at President Joe Biden and Democrats’ green policy initiatives.
According to the Energy Information Administration, low distillate fuel inventories, which include diesel, jet fuel and heating oil, could push diesel prices close to $5 per gallon, even though the national price of gasoline has dropped below $4 per gallon. Since diesel is the primary fuel source for vessels that transport most consumer goods, increased prices are likely to bleed into other goods, too.
“This issue has been building for a long, long time,” said Dan Kish, senior fellow at nonprofit Institute for Energy Research. “I can tell you that we who track markets and commodities saw this coming months ago.”
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