The real story of why diesel and gasoline prices have risen | Eastern NC Now

Democrats and their mouthpieces in the MSM propaganda media want to use tunnel vision on the issue of high diesel and gasoline prices, and turn it into a political weapon.  The reality is a lot more complex and comes back to government actions not even being mentioned by these sources.

Diesel and gasoline trade in world markets.  When prices go up or down one place, they tend to do so around the world.  Europe, for example is now seeing a record high in its diesel prices, and gasoline has soared, too, along with aviation fuel.  Part of it has to do with the supply of petroleum. reduced on the world market by two wars, one between Russia and Ukraine and one in Iran.

https://rmx.news/article/diesel-price-explodes-to-record-highs-across-europe/

But the big factor is refining capacity and the resulting decrease in refined petroleum products on the world market.  When refineries go offline, their customers have to look for those products elsewhere creating more demand chasing reduced supply.  That translates to higher prices.

Part of the problem of the supply of refined product problem has to do with war.  A major Saudi refinery that has exported refined products is offline.  But Ukraine's successful campaign to hit Russian refineries with drones has had an even bigger impact.  Russia used to export a lot of diesel and other refined products.  Now it is having to import them, and it needs more than usual because its military consumes a lot of diesel in combat.  Even with imports, huge gas lines and empty stations are now commonplace in Russia.  Farmers sometimes cannot even get diesel to harvest their crops.

Russia's significance in the world market for refined petroleum led a prominent former US Senator to famously refer to Russia as "a gas station with nukes"..  Now, the Russian government has banned export of diesel, gasoline, aviation fuel, and other refined petroleum products.  It still exports crude oil but that does nothing to impact the world market for refined products.  On the world market for refined products , Russia is now a buyer and importer instead of its long role as a seller and exporter.

Refineries have also been a big target of climate alarmists, as part of their war on fossil fuel.  That has led to a  reduction of refinery capacity in both Europe and the US.

That anti-refinery campaign in the US has hit hard in California.  Ten years ago, the ten refineries then operating in the state had plenty of capacity for the needs of California and nearby western states.  Then liberal Democrat politicians in the state went to work with laws and regulations to make life difficult for those companies that operated refineries in California.  As a result of the new anti-oil state political regime, two of those refineries were converted for operations other than refining petroleum and two closed completely.  The six remaining refineries only produce a little over half of the demand of California and nearby states.

Initially, California filled the gap by importing diesel, gasoline, and other refined products from Asia.  That worked for a while but it was felt by local people in the pump price of gas and diesel.  Then came the Ukraine and Iran wars and that source dried up.  Now they are buying refined products from Texas refineries, straining the supply of gasoline and diesel for the rest of the country.  Texas refineries have to run wide open to meet the needs of both California and nearby states plus the rest of the country that they previously setved.

All of that, the wars and the demands of radical environmentalists have squeezed the supply of gasoline and diesel, and that has pushed market prices higher.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/great-diesel-crisis-how-policy-choices-made-west-vulnerable