Why is diesel fuel more expensive than gasoline?
diesel fuel, a type of fuel commonly used in commercial trucks, has not always been more expensive than standard gasoline used in passenger vehicles. At least on paper, the diesel fuel is less refined oil distillate than gasoline, so it should always be cheaper than gasoline. The problem with fuel prices has more in common with the laws of supply and demand for various oil products, not the actual production costs.
The oil barrel can be "cracked" or divided into a number of different products, from domestic heating oil to petrol to petroleum. However, oil refiners can only process a fixed number of these products at once, so they tend to choose products with the highest demand at that time. This generally means that gasoline for passenger vehicles takes precedence over diesel fuel for commercial vehicles. When the supply of diesel fuel is low, the price naturally increases. EIR on another product similar to diesel fuel: home heating oil. At this moment, usually just beforeWinter, diesel fuel becomes more abundant and the price usually drops. However, this trend is not always true, because especially cold winter can keep the demand for home heating high and again place diesel production on the diesel fuel below on the rafiner agenda.
In recent years, the federal government has ordered changes to the acceptable sulfur level in diesel fuel and refinery must follow these mandates to create an ultra -low product of the nail. This means significant investments in new technologies and several distillations before government inspectors are considered acceptable. All these additional regulations and high-tech equipment can cost billions of dollars and these expenses are often transmitted to consumers through higher prices.
There are also higher federal taxes on consumption materials compared to standard petrol. Some critics suggest that the federal governmentIt is less eager to store higher taxes per millions of private drivers than thousands of commercial drivers who use less popular fuel. Part of the reason is diesel fuel more expensive than gas is the total amount of federal and state taxes added to each gallon.
In many other countries, diesel is increasingly cheaper than gasoline, and there are significantly more passenger cars on European and Asian roads. If more drivers in the United States were willing or able to switch to diesel -powered vehicles, the price for a gallon diesel could fall below the price of gasoline. More refinery would have a financial incentive to process more diesel fuels during top months or more fuel stations would offer standard diesel or more environmentally friendly bio-nft at competitive prices.