Inquiring minds want to know. Today gas was $1.68 a gallon

and diesel was $2.89 a gallon. I hear the EPA forbids the American auto companies from importing their diesel cars they sell in Europe that are roughly 40% more fuel efficient. Doesn't it seem strange that gasoline is almost exactly 40% cheaper by the gallon than diesel? Example diesel $2.89 minus 40% equals $1.73. Isn't diesel a less refined cheaper by-product of the manufacturer of gasoline? In other words if tomorrow we all went out and bought a diesel car we would use 40% less fuel in our cars, so therefore they price it at $2.89 a gallon in order to keep us on the less efficient gasoline engines. They sell a larger quanity of oil and import more oil and therfore keep the oil industry and OPEC happy. Just why is diesel more expensive it was always cheaper up until just a few years ago? Are taxes higher?

It was a real puzzler for me when I moved to California and saw how much more expensive it is here.

of this f-----g mess ask the oil companies why? It seems obvious to me or am I just nuts.

when people started to buy into the deisel truck market, the price skyrocketed. The same thing was supposed to happen with unlead gasoline. It was supposed to be cheaper because the lead additive didnt' have to be added to prevent valve knock.

Face it, the entire thing is a scam. we're screwn no matter which way we go.


Peace

light trucks and the semis have always used diesel. Also the fuel oil we use to heat our homes is even less refined than diesel and it is higher too now, it had always costs less than gasoline in the past. Also I would guess people are using less fuel oil to heat today, it seems everyone around here is going to the electric heat pump.

electric plant.

to my house far cheaper than if I burnt the coal or fuel oil to produce the heat. Another thing they are burning that coal and oil in a plant that is highly regulated by the EPA and it produces far less pollution than a million individual homes would using an inefficient heating system with absolutely no EPA standards to live up to. If you lived in this area back when everyone used coal furnaces for heat it would be obvious things are far better today.

I know this is tinfoil hat area, but, do you think the high price had anything to do with shutting down the teamsters?.. Without seeming like a complete idiot, I can't understand the rise in the price of diesel fuel.

Thanks for the conversation.:hi:

back the Repugs? I listen to the truckers channel most every morning on the way to work and the truckers are always bitching about the price of fuel and there being no union jobs anymore but these blooming idiots almost always blame the Democrats for everything? I remember a few years ago a truck driver for GE Betz chemical telling me he was about the last of their Union drivers. What GE Betz did was buy a non-union trucking outfit just across the street from their Union shop then gradually moved all their deliveries to the non-union shop. I blamed Reagan for the Union busting and he immediately got all huffy and started blaming Democrats. I can't understand working people that year after year vote against their own interest over the guns gays and God issues. The only explanation for a working man being a Republican has to be some kind of mental disorder. I wonder if anyone has ever studied what makes people be either Democrat or Republican. I work in a Union shop and we have a very large percentage of them, I mean we have been screwed over since 1980 and they will still stick up for Reagan and W.

Tetraethyl lead was eliminated for two reasons, first it kills catalytic converters and second it pollutes the environment with a poisonous heavy metal.

The replacement for lead was more expensive and also forced a redesign to more expensive engine components because a secondary benefit of the lead besides its octane boosting qualities was it helped protect the valves and valve seats. Unleaded engines have to have hardened valve seats that engines designed for leaded fuel don't need.

said it was a flat out conspiracy to keep diesel vehicles out of the US. Not nearly as much money in refining it because it takes less effort to refine it. It is a shame. Especially with Ford's 65mpg diesel car out there.

My old man over in Europe has had a variety of diesel cars over the last 10 years and gets fantastic mileage (~45mpg) and performance out of them. Maybe if you put a gas and diesel car head to head on the racetrack the gas one would perform better, but 99.9% of the time you just want to get from A to B. I'd say the performance most people need to pay attention to when buying a vehicle is that of the braking system.

the crude is distilled and is collected in a tank where gasoline comes to the top. The gasoline is drained off then #1 kerosene is drained off, then #2 fuel oil and so on down to heavy grease. A friend of mine has a few small oil wells, the oil is collected in a holding tank and even settles out to some degree there. He brought me a sample of what he drained from the top of his holding tank it nearly looks like gasoline and you can actually use it in your car in a pinch. The heavier products are actually just waste left over from making gasoline.

I suspect we will see regular gasoline going to the current price of diesel within 6 months. I think the gas market is being played (again) and this is why the odd price difference exists between the two.

I may be filling up my Chevy Tracker for under $20 if the prices keep dropping...weird to think about since at one point it was costing me $60 to fill up. A full tank lasts me about 2 weeks (thanks to mass trans use).

I don't know, but I do know this. It doesn't follow the laws of supply & demand like we've always been told. The prices are fixed by the wizards of Wall St. We always assumed the oil companies themselves made all the profit. No, the price fixers get a big chunk when they mark it up as high as it was earlier this year and last.

the quagmire in iraq is probably a big part of the reason that diesel costs what diesel does.

and two months ago it was almost $4 a gallon. What a bunch of BS profit mongering and price setting this is about. I really wish I could walk everywhere and carry the stuff I needed to live on home on my back.

Used to be, diesel could be made from sour crude, and yes, a cheaper process. Today we now have ultra low sulfur diesel requirements, and as such, diesel must be made from sweet crude, thus no savings.

As an aside, I am an environmental science type, and it always amazed me that in the risk assessments, and toxicological studies, diesel fuel is really much less toxic than gas, due to its lower BTEX content. Diesel just looks worse and as it has more particulate from incomplete combustion, especially in cold engines.