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Released: April 9, 2009
Diesel Rises 0.7¢ to $2.228; Gas Dips 0.9¢ to $2.037
Diesel rose less than one cent for its third straight increase, gaining 0.7 cent to $2.228 per gallon, the Energy Department reported Monday to NASSTRAC. The increase left trucking’s main fuel $1.727 below the same week last year, according to DOE figures. It followed last week’s 13.1-cent jump that was the biggest since Memorial Day of last year, when diesel jumped 22.6 cents to $4.723 a gallon on its run toward the $4.764 record set in mid-July. Monday’s upturn was just the fifth increase in the past 37 weeks, but diesel has jumped 21.1 cents over the past three weeks. Gasoline, meanwhile, reversed its recent upward trend in dipping 0.9 cent to $2.037 a gallon, DOE said following its weekly filling-station surveys. The downturn was the fourth in the past 14 weeks and left gas $1.295 below the same week last year and $2.077 below the record $4.114 set last July 7. Each week, DOE surveys about 350 diesel filling stations to compile a national snapshot average price.
> View Regional Diesel Fuel Prices
Bill Aims to Cut Emissions with Cap-and-Trade Plan
Last week, two senior House Democratic leaders introduced a comprehensive greenhouse gas bill that includes a cap-and-trade program and would expand motor carriers’ use of SmartWay technologies. Sponsors of the bill, Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), claim it would reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and create energy-related jobs. The 648-page American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, would initiate a cap-and-trade program aimed mainly at stationary sources, such as electricity generating plants, and promote renewable sources of energy and carbon-capture technology, Waxman and Markey said in a joint statement released March 31. However, industry observers suggest that the measure is unclear on whether heavy trucks would be included in the cap-and-trade system.
Industrial Production Index Falls To Lowest In Seven Years
Industrial production, a key measure of shipping demand, fell 1.4 percent in February, according to a report from the Federal Reserve. After four consecutive monthly declines, the overall index dipped below 100 to hit its lowest point since April 2002. At 99.7, industrial output in February was 11.2 percent below its year-earlier level. Despite a little help from a return to production of motor vehicles and parts after January's plant shutdowns, production in the manufacturing sector moved down 0.7 percent in February. The output of mines slipped 0.4 percent. Above-average temperatures contributed to a 7.7 percent drop in the output of utilities. Capacity utilization is at a historic low of 70.9 percent, matching the low usage near the end of the Reagan era recession in December 1982. The rate is 10 percentage points below the average from 1972 to 2008, said the Federal Reserve.
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