Beckley, WV (WOAY) According to AAA, as of Tuesday, September 22nd, diesel prices are roughly 75% higher than one year ago. The national average is $6.51 per gallon, while a year ago, it was $3.70 per gallon.
There is a good chance just about everything in your cabinets arrived to your point of purchase via diesel fuel. And as diesel hits record highs, there is no magic bullet.
“That cost has to be translated back to the consumer. So that, of course, also increases inflation in the nation,” says Michael Peck, the lead commercial driving instructor at the Beckley Academy of Careers and Technology
Trucking companies have tight margins like most businesses, and they aren’t the only ones depending on diesel fuel.
“Got to remember, it’s not just trucks running them. It’s heavy equipment, construction workers, you know, the roads and excavators, and the farmers. We are hitting the prime time for farms harvesting right now. So that’s going to drive the price up because demand is high again.”
Our modern way of life has placed a dependency on diesel fuel that is undoubtedly a liability. If a supply disruption occurs, Peck says hospitals will be hit first with shortages that will then fall like dominoes.
“Well, [if] we run out of gas, then also, we’re going to start running out of water and supplies to our grocery stores and Walmart and other places like that. Food Lion, Kroger’s, our fresh produce will stop. And then after about a week, then total water, you know, our chemicals that we need for our water plants: that shuts down. So our own water for our houses will also shut down.
It’s clearly obvious that our current way of life is dependent on diesel fuel. Peck confirmed these are the highest prices he has seen for diesel, and I asked what was different this time.
“Well, it does feel different. It seems longer. Yeah. We’ve had spikes in fuel before, but they’ve always recovered in a month or two. But this one, of course, has been going very much longer. Even though it seems like it’s been a slow rise from about four and a quarter up to now, about $6.59 a gallon for diesel. It’s stayed up for the last three or four months, so there hasn’t been and there’s no, you know, room in sight to see it coming down, unfortunately.”
