diesel woes
 

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/us...=1&oref=slogin

Boo hoo. You can't cut down your trees to build over-sized houses for folks with magazine and newspaper subscriptions who don't give a damn how many trees it takes to satisfy their greedy lifestyle? Yeah, that may have crossed a line or two, but seriously, why are these people complaining? What is it with Americans that they instantly have to blame someone and can not take responsibility for their actions? The state of Maine shouldn't lose tax dollars because the truckers made a bad choice when they entered their profession! Don't expect people to save you when your decisions backfire on you. America never was and never could become a socialist/communist state that supports people regardless of the circumstances. America loves capitalism, where it is survival of the fittest. I don't personally like this system, but it is fact that this is what America practices.

Bottom line is, prices are rising, and they will continue to rise. Plan accordingly.

I agree, you can't expect the government to "fix" supply and demand.

Maybe you guys need to realize that taxes on Diesel right now are higher than on Gas. It is not the cost of the fuel but the cost of the taxes. I do agree that in the long run things tend to work out...higher prices for everything...then someone else will be complaining. As for weight....that needs to stay constant.

Sure, we can do something like Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe and outlaw inflation. :p

DarbyWalters: No one understands that point greater than me. Living in Japan, diesel is much cheaper than gas. To this end, I researched up on why that is. As you said, it is because of taxes. Diesel is easier to refine than gasoline. This would naturally make it cheaper than gasoline, which is the case in Japan. I can only guess that Japan does this to promote industry. Japan has always had a thinking that you take care of business and screw the consumer. Business profitability is the best way to build a great country. America on the other hand is quite the opposite. Protect the consumer from the evil corporation. Anyways, looking at the diesel situation in America, as everyone knows, it is more expensive than gasoline.

So there you go.. diesel price is not inflated in Japan, and it is inflated in America. Wait.. everyone is following my piecemeal logic right? Japan protects business, and business uses diesel (barely any average people drive diesels in Japan -- can't buy them), so the prices on diesel are cheap. America protects the consumer, and consumers use gasoline (other than the TDI, there aren't many diesel choices in consumer cars in America), so it is less taxed than diesel. Simple as that. And I connected these dots AS I was typing. Amazing what some good British gin will do for the ole noggin.

theclencher: "Or put in more rail."

Funny you mention this....I was talking with a retired SantaFe RR guy a week or so ago, he thinks economically towns/cities WITH rail service will survive, those WITHOUT will dry up. Kind of like when rail went in, in the 1800's.

I remember when SantaFe and MoPac removed rail service to our town in the 80's...all the landowners thought it was a great deal. Now I'm not so sure.

Still, America is too spread out to have a really excellent rail system like that of Europe and Japan. We have absolutely no high-speed rail connections, and have to rely purely on inefficient and overly expensive air travel to get around the country. I doubt if America could ever catch up to the other countries in the world in regards to rail transportation. People will have to get by on cars alone, until the day comes where cars are prohibitively expensive to operate.

Agricultural Diesel (with red dye) is much cheaper for farmers...under $2.00 last time I checked but nobody says raise it and the price of food!

That also happens to be good for business. I mean, if anyone is gonna take to VO as a fuel source en masse, it would be farmers. In the future, we may even see a freeze on diesel prices for farmers.

Last election ('06) here in FL there was a vote to repeal the High-Speed-Rail Act. It passed, no more plans to start a high speed rail line in FL (I voted to keep it). I researched all the plans at that time and found that every state south of VA (NC, SC, GA,FL) had similar plans. You see, VA, MD, PA, NY, CT, NJ and MA already have high speed rail, in some form. If all the southern states had it too then there could be continuous high-speed rail line all the way from Boston to Miami (at least in theory). There was a big push to convince voters that it was all a waste of money and no one was ever going to ride it. Nobody saw the big picture or understood the benefits. Or believed that gas would get over $3 a gallon.