[HN Gopher] The U.S. Diesel Shortage Is Worsening
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       The U.S. Diesel Shortage Is Worsening
        
       Author : indigodaddy
       Score  : 34 points
       Date   : 2022-11-01 19:59 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (oilprice.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (oilprice.com)
        
       | pcurve wrote:
       | Cost of diesel in the US is hilariously out of control. It's far
       | cheaper to drive gasoline
        
         | Ancapistani wrote:
         | Tell me about it. My spouse's vehicle was down for the past two
         | months, and they've been driving an F350 Super Duty. It was
         | >$175 to fill up.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | bamboozled wrote:
           | I'll get hammered for this, but why do people own cars like
           | that, why on earth would people need a F350 super duty ? What
           | practical purpose would it serve ?
           | 
           | The climate is breaking down and people are cruising around
           | in trucks like that? I don't know...
        
             | fragmede wrote:
             | Acual farm usage. off-road moving of landscaping materials
             | and tools. pulling horse or sheep or pig trailers. or
             | boats. there are actual legitimate reasons to own such a
             | beast but of course not everyone that owns it uses it for
             | that purpose so accusations that the user "doesn't really
             | need one" are rife. but that's capitalism for ya.
        
               | reustle wrote:
               | I grew up in a pretty rural part of the US and while
               | those use cases were absolutely common for a decent
               | percentage of large truck owners, they only used them for
               | those purposes about 5-10% of the time. The more
               | reasonable folks had a small simple car for their daily
               | driver, and weren't worried about using their big truck
               | as a status symbol.
        
       | lob_it wrote:
       | Instead of accelerating a recession, perhaps more resources will
       | be dedicated to biofuels to keep industry and vehicles powered
       | for decades to come.
       | 
       | Many industries are "beyond a crisis", which makes many of the
       | shortfalls in supply/production/service quality, just a lingering
       | fact that was omnipresent prepandemic and even pre-21st century.
        
       | cinntaile wrote:
       | I wonder how this will impact the average car size? I would
       | expect to see fewer big pickup trucks being used by people that
       | don't need them in the near future?
        
       | amanaplanacanal wrote:
       | Given how polluting diesel is, this could be a good thing long
       | term. So much of our commercial transportation is dependent on it
       | though, so this is a major pain point short term.
        
         | SigmundA wrote:
         | Diesel is more efficient than gas as far as MPG, so CO2 is
         | actually less per mile, NOx and particulates should be
         | equivalent on a modern diesel with DPF and DEF SCR.
        
           | zug_zug wrote:
           | Doesn't pass the smell test - I can smell diesel exhaust from
           | at least 100 feet away (maybe 10x as pungent as non-diesel),
           | has to be something I'm smelling
        
         | bamboozled wrote:
         | Have you seen the price of regular fuel? It's not much better.
        
         | iszomer wrote:
         | It's even more unfortunate when diesel is still being used as
         | fuel for some homes for heating.
        
         | serf wrote:
         | it'll be interesting to see the short-term market shortages
         | caused by it.
         | 
         | I have a few acquaintances that are ripping diesel motors out
         | of their boats due to the cost of operation and going electric
         | -- problem is that many of the motor controllers used are back
         | ordered due to the supply issues that are all over the
         | transistor/electronics markets already that haven't been
         | remediated.
         | 
         | well, at least battery prices are dropping with the market
         | volumes.
        
         | prescriptivist wrote:
         | It's more than transportation. "Heating oil" is basically
         | diesel and is affected by these prices. Winter is about to hit
         | the Northeast and many people still heat with it. To fill up my
         | tank today would be around $1200 and I will be expecting to
         | refill it every 40-60 days for the next six months.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | bamboozled wrote:
       | Nothing makes sense anymore, I read that Exxon mobile made record
       | profits this year. How?
       | 
       | We've messed ourselves up so hard relying on oil companies the
       | way we do, how's it's the peasants that are paying for endless
       | price gouging.
        
         | finiteseries wrote:
         | By maxing out supply amid unending demand, they have a terrific
         | product/market fit.
         | 
         | https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pnp_unc_dcu_nus_m.htm
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand
         | 
         | Here's a map of the places that create diesel from crude oil.
         | Note the north & south east where these shortages are
         | occurring, and limited to.
         | 
         | https://atlas.eia.gov/datasets/6547eda91ef84cc386e23397cf834...
         | 
         | It has been 45 years since a >200,000 barrel per day refinery
         | was built in the US.
         | 
         | 1998-2015 saw 0 upgrades to existing capacity or new builds.
         | Since 2015, a handful of <50,000 barrel per day refineries have
         | been built, but every single one is in Texas.
        
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       (page generated 2022-11-01 23:02 UTC)