[PJ] Oil prices and President Joe Biden’s continued draining of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) have dominated the headlines over the past few weeks, but analysts say a more impactful and serious crisis on the energy front looms: a diesel fuel shortage.
Diesel doesn’t get as much of the limelight as oil and gas, but it should because diesel fuel is the industrial lifeblood of the United States, and the price of diesel alone probably has a more significant impact on inflation and the prices you’re paying at the grocery store over any other factor. Without ample amounts of diesel, semi-trucks don’t move, farms are shut down, and critical manufacturing sectors are crippled.
As Bloomberg noted this week, "The US has just 25 days of diesel supply, the lowest since 2008, according to the Energy Information Administration. At the same time, the four-week rolling average of distillates supplied, a proxy for demand, rose to its highest seasonal level since 2007."
The Biden administration has remained strangely silent, probably hoping that the dismal news doesn’t hit the mainstream because it’s a total political timebomb waiting to go off, especially as the midterm elections are so close.
Bloomberg noted: |