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"Gasoline prices are down here too (N IL), BUT diesel is WAY UP - about $1.00/gallon more than regular.
This is a MAJOR problem - we'll get hit on the back end with prices going up for everything due to delivery costs."

Diesel is cheaper to produce than gas also, fact is people can reduce consumption with gas which the oil companies can react to by lowering prices. Diesel on the other hand is a given, OTR truckers have to buy it no matter what, however high it is. Oil companies just moved their profit margin from one column to the other is all. Can't have all of us running out and buying those highbreds now can they? Got to make sure soccer mom can afford the next Suburban instead of a Preo(?)

I suspect that diesel prices remain high because the large volume of diesel contract sales makes the "turn-around" time for price swings much longer. Most of the major trucking companies were able to endure the spike in fuel prices because their diesel fuel had already been purchased months ago at lower prices. When the prices went up, fuel producers had to sell a lot of their product at very small margins on these contract sales, so they tend to keep their prices high to "recover" their earlier losses.

If I bought a contract for 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel last year for $1.75 per gallon, that price may have seemed high at the time. But if the price rose to $2.75 this year and it cost someone $2.00 to produce it, then I was making out like a bandit.