Rising diesel prices, possible shortage could force consumers to spend more

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - The rising costs of diesel fuel and concerns of a possible shortage could have everyone paying the price.

According to AAA, nearly half of all states have averaged at or above $5 a gallon. Experts believe this spike will lead to consumers paying more at the grocery store and at other shops.

“Fuel prices have an effect on everything in the grocery stores,” Creighton Guillory said.

Guillory is the CEO of All-Transport, LLC, and services states all across the south. He said he’s paying well over $5 a gallon on diesel for his trucks. Between four to five trucks that can take 250 to 300 gallons to fill up, Guillory said he’s paying thousands of dollars before he can make a single delivery.

“Right now, man, we’re looking at about $1000 to fill up one truck,” Guillory said.

Experts say prices are rising because diesel is in short supply, and it’s starting to have a domino effect on the country’s supply chain.

As the price of fuel goes up, the same goes for the cost of goods.

Guillory said, “We have to eat, we have to buy it, we need to put gas in our cars to go to back and forth to work, so what are we to do?”

Experts are pointing to the pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and a rebounding economy as the key reasons why we’re experiencing this problem with diesel.

”What this has done, is the price people are paying for things has increased faster than wages have increased and of course, this can negatively impact you and I whenever we go buy those goods and services that we need to live,” Dr. Greg Upton said.

Upton is an Associate Research Professor at the Louisiana State University Center for Energy Studies.

He said there is optimism to believe that things will recover and stabilize.

“Prices are anticipated to reduce over the next year or so,” Upton said.

Upton said current data show that we are bound for a slow, but steady return to somewhat normal prices.

”Futures markets are anticipating that it will reduce by about a dollar per gallon over the next year or so, and actually in the long run markets are thinking when these long-run fundamentals come back to balance, that we could actually expect to see gasoline prices in the $3 to $3.50 a gallon range,” Upton said.

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