President Biden admitted something of a defeat on Wednesday, losing any semblance of optimism in fighting runaway fuel prices and other inflation.
“There’s a lot going on right now," he told reporters, "but the idea we’re going to be able to, you know, click a switch, bring down the cost of gasoline, is not likely in the near term, nor is it with regard to food. ... We can’t take immediate action that I’m aware of yet to figure out how we’re going to bring down the price." Diesel, too, of course.
Days earlier, Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, warned that this summer's fuel issues could dwarf even the historic 1973 oil crisis, when prices doubled as Middle Eastern nations in OPEC's predecessor put an oil embargo on the U.S. as punishment for support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War. It all sparked turmoil here -- high prices, fuel rationing, legislative moves toward an eventual 55 mph national speed limit, and plenty of protest among trucking factions.
[Related: Fuel-market insanity: A tale of two loads, bedrock cost-control/rates-management tactics]
“When the main holiday season starts in Europe and the US, fuel demand will rise,” Birol told German publication Der Spiegel, according to translations. “Then we could see shortages -- for example, in diesel, petrol or kerosene, particularly in Europe.”
When it comes fuel impacts, what happens in Europe, clearly, isn't staying in Europe, as the war in Ukraine has shown in the form of quick fuel-price inflation. Complicating matters, the 70s crisis was "just about oil,” Birol said. “Now we have an oil crisis, a [natural] gas crisis and an electricity crisis simultaneously.”
The biggest issue going for most owner-operators in the U.S. isn't with fuel's supply, though. It's cost, with the pain spread far and wide but particularly pronounced out West and now in the Northeast. As reported yesterday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul this week suspended certain state taxes on fuels, which should amount to about 15 cents per gallon for diesel, not much given how high diesel is there.
