Normal gasoline prices are up sharply over the past year. That's bad enough. The price spikes hitting specialty fuels, on the other hand, are... way worse:
We're all familiar with 'pain at the pump,' the narrative that launched a thousand local news segments. But there's more than one fuel product that can be pumped, and the extent of the pain can vary...
The price surge for industrial fuels such as diesel and jet fuel — byproducts of petroleum refining, known as distillates — have far outstripped the rise in price for consumer-facing products such as gasoline.
Just in case you need a clear visual display of what's going on here:
Yep, seeing just how massively everything has gone up since January...
It does explain a lot. It's much easier to see the massive jump in everyday fuel prices. But the nation's transportation and logistics infrastructure doesn't run on "everyday fuel." It runs on things like diesel and, to a lesser extent, jet fuel. If those prices increase, everything else gets a big hike too.
And we're not even halfway through the year yet. I hate to say it, but we better get comfortable with this, folks.
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