Fuel prices

[John K Jordan]

As for diesel in the US, it's because of heavy taxes levied on diesel to (a) pay for roads that transport trucks play a large role in the wear and tear on, and (b) environmental reasons. This happened in the late 80's or early 90's, and before that diesel was cheaper in the US to regular petrol.

Now that makes sense! Thanks!

When working at the national lab we learned about all about rigs and Equivalent Single Axle Loads when my group developed a fiber-optic weigh-in-motion sensor. Different highways are designed to withstand the passage of different numbers of ESALs before degrading. There is a whole lot more to road construction than I imagined.
https://www.pavementinteractive.org/...gle-axle-load/
We were told overweight trucks operated to bypass the weigh stations were a huge problem in some areas.

I spent a lot of time along the side of interstates with trucks whizzing by. Some drivers tried to bounce their rigs to catch and tear up our test scales (some apparently HATED the idea of any kind of weight enforcement), and traveling all over taking data and video, visiting weigh stations, and collaborating with partners. Good clean fun!

Maybe some day they will tax the big rigs more appropriately and leave us with little diesel farm trucks and cars alone. I buy ag diesel without out tax for the tractor and such but apparently it's expensive to get caught with it in a road vehicle! (It has dye I'm told detectable even in trace amounts.)

JKJ

[Tom M King]

Here, it seems like diesel always goes up in Winter. Someone told me once that it was because it's heating oil season, but I don't know of anyone that burns heating oil any more.

I put a 56 gallon aftermarket tank in my dually. Back when diesel fuel went up to 4 dollars, it cost me $200 to fill up a pickup.

[John K Jordan]

Here, it seems like diesel always goes up in Winter. Someone told me once that it was because it's heating oil season, but I don't know of anyone that burns heating oil any more....

I wondered if some of the increase was because of the cold weather anti-gel additives. The fuel depot guy here said they only add these as winter approaches.

I haul the no-road-tax ag diesel in a 55-gal drum. A friend gave me a 100 gal tank with an electric pump - that's nice since I have four off-road things here that use diesel.

JKJ

[Bill Dufour]

Realistically fuel taxes should pay for the entire road system, the entire highway patrol, about half/ of all city police and fire departments. And a similar portion of ambulance and emergency room staffing. How should electric vehicles pay for their share?

[Bryan Lisowski]

Pennsylvania is right up there too. New Jersey recently enacted a $.25/gal. tax increase and they're still 25 to 30 cents a gallon cheaper than PA.

Land we still don't have to pump it either. Yesterday I paid $2.31.

[Peter Christensen]

Gas is around $1.04Can / litre or $2.92US / US gal. here and we are among the cheaper places in the country.

[Tanner Hawey]

Gas is around $1.04Can / litre or $2.92US / US gal. here and we are among the cheaper places in the country.

2 hours south it's $0.929/litre

[Yathin Krishnappa]

Realistically fuel taxes should pay for the entire road system, the entire highway patrol, about half/ of all city police and fire departments. And a similar portion of ambulance and emergency room staffing. How should electric vehicles pay for their share?

Like I've said before on another thread, electric car drivers I know (me included) are more than willing to pay their share and will do so when there's a formal law around it. Also, how many electric cars are there on the road today and how much more would it rake in taxes if they paid "their share"? This is still an experimental phase and we (electric car drivers) are paying LOT of money for the car we are getting. It does NOT make economic sense to drive an electric today, so please cut us some slack? In the end, this may or may not work, but we need to try various solutions (like Hydrogen that Keith brought up in the topic on electric cars) to the obvious problem because it is unlikely we can just replenish Earth from a galactic filling station.

[Mike Kreinhop]

With today's currency exchange rate, a gallon of 98 Octane is about $6.25 and a gallon of diesel is about $5.75 at the local gas station. The AAFES price this week for a gallon of diesel is $3.56 ($0.937 per liter).

[Scott Donley]

3.49 a gal here last week, we also have a lot of taxes added on in that.

[Peter Christensen]

2 hours south it's $0.929/litre

Hi neighbour. I'll go to Costco in an hour and get it for about $0.95 or so. The $1.04 is the average price but seems to be dropping every couple three days or so. We'll get used to low prices again and they will kick them back up higher than before.

[John K Jordan]

... and they will kick them back up higher than before.

For some odd reason gas prices here seem to go up during holiday travel. Maybe it costs more to make it then since the refinery workers are traveling too. Ha.

JKJ

[Bryan Lisowski]

For some odd reason gas prices here seem to go up during holiday travel. Maybe it costs more to make it then since the refinery workers are traveling too. Ha.

JKJ

Gas always goes up over the holidays, long weekends and summer here. Reason is simple, more people on the road = more money.

[Ronald Blue]

Taxes are only a minor part of why diesel is so much higher than gasoline. The federal tax is only 6 cents per gallon higher. State taxes are all over the place but some are even lower than the taxes on gas. Check out the lick to US motor fuel taxes.

taxadmin.org/assets/docs/Research/Rates/mf.pdf

[Dave Lehnert]

Cincinnati Ohio

Last week we were around $2.04 gal. It has jumped back up to around $2.35 gal over the weekend.