Why diesel is more expensive than gasoline?

Question

The following is an excerpt from USA Today.

What I want to know is why diesel is much more expensive than gas (gasolline) when two of them come from the same crude oil and much more complicated process should be done before we get gas. The gap is difficult to be explained by the demand and supply theory, I presugume. Is there any hidden tax attributable to diesel's impact on environment?

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On Tuesday, regular unleaded gas prices slipped slightly to a national average of $3.331 a gallon from Monday's record of $3.339, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Prices are 55 cents higher than a year ago.

High oil prices have also sent diesel prices higher. Diesel's national average price rose 1.3 cents to $4.02 a gallon on Tuesday, AAA said, within 2 cents of last month's record.

"We'll set a record this week — probably in the $4.05 to $4.10 a gallon neighborhood," said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service

Answer 1

I can only speak for the U.K, When i was a kid Diesel used to be cheaper than petrol (gas). Its price has slowly risen at every budget as more tax has been imposed on it to try and reduce its use and therefore the pollution. we have red diesel that used only by agriculture and certain other buisnesses that is dyed red and carries little or no tax and is way cheaper than petrol.

Answer 2

There is no logical explanation. Diesel is easier to refine than gasoline. Gasoline has more room for profit apparently.

Answer 3

As in most things there is no simple answer but as I understand it:

The bigger the engine, the more miles travelled, the heavier the load hauled then the more likely it will be a diesel powered engine and indeed only diesel options are available at the top end of these scales. Eventually there are no gas ( petrol in the UK ) options and increasingly more small engine manf.s. are also offering a diesel version. For the larger trucking and transport situations with only the diesel options , other than overall efficiency practices, there is little scope for operators to avoid whatever charges the refining and Govts chose to make.

Although the manf.process is simpler for diesel a gallon of diesel requires more crude oil than the creation of a gallon of gas/ petrol. Put another way, a barrel of crude when distilled  will produce approx 7 gallons of diesel and approx 20 gallons of automobilegasoline/ petrol. Diesel has a bad reputation for cleanliness and the 'cleaner' low sulphur diesels require even more crude oil to produce a gallon of road fuel than a gallon of gas. Better diesel engine efficiency helps to balance out the initially more harmful tailpipe emissions of diesel exhausts.

Add in the tremendous extra energy demands of the US war machines with their diesel engines, add in the various taxation policies of Govts.

Whilst European countries generally reward with lower taxation the greater diesel efficiencies the US and UK esp. seem to see the chance to increase diesel taxation because the diesels extra efficiency is still sufficient to persuade consumers to buy diesel engined vehicles, and in some cases as stated earlier there are no alternatives anyway at the top end of the engine size. It is not therefore a case of higher prices / taxation to reduce demand, rather the opportunity to continue taxing a product we have to use as there is no realistic alternative and many diesel users are a captive consumer market.

As the cost of crude rises on the world market there seems even less likely hood of diesel prices falling back to the once lower prices than gas per gallon.

Edit: I often return to Q & A to see what others have put and since my entry have found the following links that might be interesting

<www.tbaz.com/CrudeOilDieselPrice.htm>

also <www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/source...

also < //science.how stuffworks.com/oil-refining2.htm>

Answer 4

I think it cause Diesel Trucks get lousy mileage per gallon. Hauling heavy loads. And that they have huge tanks to fill up each time, I heard it takes 15 minutes or more to fill up their diesal tanks.