The US taxes diesel at a higher rate in order to keep people from shifting over from gasoline as a pollution-fighting measure. It costs less per gallon to produce diesel, and diesels get better milage. It is only our benighted tax policies that keep the US consumer from benefiting from this simple math.
It is also the oil companies, they know we can grow Bio-diesel and it would drive down the price of fuel. So they support the cash cow of ethanol. The politicians really don't give a damn about the voters, it is all about who gives them the checks and the hoes.
Really? I didn’t know that but it does make perfect sense. I always wondered why diesel was so expensive because, as you said, it costs much less to produce. I’ll bet most people in this country don’t realize they are paying the government a bit for every can of beans and roll of toilet paper they buy that is delivered by a truck, which all of it is.
There is no tax on red-dyed diesel (meant for off-road/farm use only).
I thought that the government and the states regulated diesel with the higher taxes for road repair due to semis damaging the roadways more. Sorry, that and the cost of formulating the diesel to be different from farm diesel and other types of diesel, etc.
With the new EPA Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel requirements, I am not sure that is true anymore.
24.4 cents/gal diesel vs. 18.4 cents/gal gas. Doesn’t sound like much of a discouragement to me, unless it’s taxed at the wholesale level as well.