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Why does the price of diesel matter in politics? Diesel is often overlooked in the middle of concerns about petrol prices and switching to electric vehicles. It’s dismissed as being associated with belching exhausts, confined to road haulage, not used by most consumers.
It was in fashion for a while, as a cleaner replacement fuel in modern cars but that has since diminished. But diesel matters and hugely: it is what powers the delivery of most goods in Britain, those giant trucks on motorways, the journeys to and from our ports. It’s what our farmers use, it’s a staple of the countryside.
Without it, we would be lost. Or rather, with it and paying a lot more for it, we are in trouble. What is happening?
Supplies of this global commodity, used the world over, are struggling. Wars in Ukraine and Iran have led to shortages. That difficulty of supply is being exacerbated by growing protectionism, which has seen the US, a major supplier, threatening to stop exports .
As a result, diesel prices are rocketing, hitting all-time highs, and showing no sign of stopping. The timing does not help, with farmers in the northern hemisphere harvesting their crops and people building their fuel stocks for the looming winter. Demand is soaring, as it usually does, just when supply is falling.
What can be done? World leaders are putting pressure on Donald Trump to relent and to allow the US to share its diesel. So far, there is no sign of him capitulating.
Instead, he is insisting he will do what is right for America. He wants to keep US prices down, to pacify his bedrock truck-driving supporters. If he does cut off the supply, there will be a knock-on effect on petrol and jet fuels, as the US would reduce its oil refining capacity to compensate for the absence of diesel exports.
That would, though, play well for countries like the UK, since US car-owners could end up paying more for their gasoline, which is a totem for any US president. How will that help me? Here, the government will be mindful of the last time diesel came under such pressure, which was when lorry drivers went on strike in 2000; Alastair Campbell viewed it as the worst domestic crisis to hit the Tony Blair regime as the NHS was teetering on the brink of being unable to heat its hospitals (Britain is especially vulnerable because we run a ‘just-in-time’ policy and keep only six weeks’ worth of reserves, compared with other nations, such as Japan, which stores three years’ worth).
John Healey may have to abandon a planned fuel duty rise in his forthcoming Budget. But in the absence of lasting peace in the Gulf and Trump agreeing to export, there is bound to be an impact on British household bills.
Source: The Independent
