There is rather too much talk of refinery scarcity as the cause of diesel scarcity.
Remember how the world of oil works. Crude has constituent parts . . . gasoline, kerosene (jet fuel), diesel, asphalt, etc.
Not all crude has the same ratio of content.
Since shale became a thing, the definition of crude itself became fuzzy.
Bottom line: Crude from offshore sources and conventional onshore sources is diesel rich. Light Tight Oil (shale) is not.
You don’t have to have refinery scarcity to have diesel scarcity. You can have diesel scarcity because the oil being refined doesn’t have much diesel in it.
Let’s see: Exploration —> Land leasing —> Drilling —> Refining —> Delivery —> Retail Sale
Didn’t some old ignorant anti-American coot just say “No more drilling”? Didn’t that same old coot stop federal leases for drilling? And the same old coot shut down oil pipeline construction? And drain our Strategic Petroleum Preserve to buy some votes?
I wonder what the root cause might be.