This is a I am running for REELECTION ploy, IMHO.
Meaning, I am trying to APPEAR to help the average VOTER, when really (even more important for the Senator) BIG AGRICULTURE. All the big corporate farmers that are majorly impacted by the increase in diesel at harvest time. The corporations that get Grassley elected.
I am a lumber broker. As part of my DAILY business we have to quote delivered to our customers based on what we perceive the freight we will pay to transport lumber and from point A to B. When we take an order based on what we last paid and then the freight goes UP. We EAT the difference. We can not go back to the customer and ask for a higher price to get the product delivered to them. They would tell us to pound sand.
This primarily effects trucking freight. I will give you a current example. Last month we sold some lumber from a mill in WA to Utah for shipment a couple weeks out. We based it on what we had previously been paying for freight. Which was $2900.
We are getting quoted $3500-4000 currently. We made about $500 profit on the load. So, we will end up maybe breaking even or losing $500 on the trade to get it currently delivered to Utah. So, the freight has increased 18-28% in the last month.
Sure (reelection ploy) —
But as you point out - *contract* prices up and down the chain. 6 weeks out from the election - even if diesel prices were to move as hoped under the ploy (and no guarantee they would), it’s already getting to be too late to have a meaningful impact... let’s not forget, early voting in Iowa, Texas, and elsewhere starts in about 3 weeks.
Moreover, Patrick de Haan wrote a lengthy piece skeptical about such an export ban just yesterday. Worth the read —https://gaspriceguy.substack.com/p/why-a-diesel-export-ban-wont-fix
I checked gas prices this morning. Diesel prices are touching $7 in central Illinois. Regular is back $5. Evidently there was a refinery that went offline in the Chicago area for about a week or so. This is right in the middle of harvest season..
Let ‘em tell you to pound sand. They are likely to do worse elsewhere, as they’ll be behind the curve as prices rise.