WASHINGTON — Although the price for a gallon of diesel fuel dropped slightly this week, the White House is considering an emergency declaration to release diesel from a stockpile in an effort to address a supply shortage and to help prices further drop, an administration official said on Monday.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the average price for a gallon of diesel dropped to $5.571 per gallon on Monday. That’s down from $5.623 a gallon on May 5.
U.S. President Joe Biden has said that tackling high inflation and gas prices is the priority of his administration ahead of congressional elections in November. Republicans seeking to regain control of Congress have used the surge in prices to bludgeon Democrats.
Diesel is essential for the U.S economy, powering farms and the construction sector along with the trucks, trains and boats that help move goods. Rising diesel prices will help drive up inflation, which has hit 40-year highs.
The White House is considering tapping the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, created in 2000 to help with supply issues and used only once in 2012 in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. The impact from such a release would be limited by the relatively small size of the reserve, which only contains 1 million barrels of diesel.
“We have teed up this reserve option to stay ahead of the problem, and will not hesitate to use other levers at our disposal to support families and the recovery,” a White House official said.
The situation is even worse in the U.S. Northeast, where a number of refineries have shuttered since 2000, according to a report from Reuters. For instance, the average price for a gallon of diesel in New York state is $6.52 a gallon, up 102% from a year ago, according to AAA.
U.S. distillate stocks hit their lowest level since 2005 two weeks ago and currently sit at 105.3 million barrels, while stocks on the U.S. East Coast hit an all-time low as of May 6 before rebounding in the most recent week to 22.5 million barrels, according to the latest federal data.
“We need all the help we can get. I know people mock the phrase ‘Putin’s price increase,’ but we have a supply disruption on our hands because of the Russia-Ukraine war,” John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC, referring to an argument Democrats have made that blames higher fuel prices on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, told Reuters.
“Exports of distillate fuels have been at very high levels, so it’s pretty clear we’re all in this together globally. It’s time to tap them,” Kilduff said.
The Trucker News Staff produces engaging content for not only TheTrucker.com, but also The Trucker Newspaper, which has been serving the trucking industry for more than 30 years. With a focus on drivers, the Trucker News Staff aims to provide relevant, objective content pertaining to the trucking segment of the transportation industry. The Trucker News Staff is based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Again The Biden ministration Democrats idiot I think he raising the price of fuel will push the American people to go all electric cars our society is not ready to go all elective. What people do not know is that we need fossil fuels not just for gas or diesel we use fossil fuels for a lot of other things like making plastics to make steel just to make nuts and bolts to build a new cars we need crude all your help manufacture and also the batteries you need for his electric cars most of them lithium material comes out of Russia and Ukraine . We need to close our borders to protect the American people and American self-sufficient again like it was many years ago we can produce phone call Bing steal it all all the products right here in the US we do not need to rely on the other countries we can be very independent we did it once before we can do it again and I how I am just a dumb truck driver and I know you can do if the damn Democrats or just go away and they are they are trying to make this a Associates a country. The American people can afford what the Democrats are doing to this country.
Wonderful job showing just how uneducated you are.
So what the price of oil is up. The oil companies make billions! They should just pay it. Instead, they pass the cost down to us in order to keep their pockets fat.