Posted 2005-09-23 7:49 AM (#30852) Subject: diesel shortages in the Midwest?
Regular
Posts: 51 Location: DeWitt, AR
Next week we are taking our "Big Trip" (only true vacation in our entire marriage) from SE Arkansas to SW South Dakota. We will be traveling a route through Kansas City, Sioux City and Rapid City. We get a hair over 10 mpg pulling our trailer with our 03 Dodge Dually diesel.
Does anyone know of shortages of diesel fuel along this route? Have you read of any anticipated shortages along this route?
Just our luck that Katrina and now Rita have done their best to make our vacation more expensive by driving up prices. I just would like some piece of mind that we won't get stranded anywhere without diesel fuel.
Posted 2005-09-23 8:29 AM (#30856 - in reply to #30852) Subject: RE: diesel shortages in the Midwest?
Expert
Posts: 2689
Originally written by rollingrfarm on 2005-09-23 7:49 AM
Next week we are taking our "Big Trip" (only true vacation in our entire marriage) from SE Arkansas to SW South Dakota. We will be traveling a route through Kansas City, Sioux City and Rapid City. We get a hair over 10 mpg pulling our trailer with our 03 Dodge Dually diesel.
Does anyone know of shortages of diesel fuel along this route? Have you read of any anticipated shortages along this route?
Just our luck that Katrina and now Rita have done their best to make our vacation more expensive by driving up prices. I just would like some piece of mind that we won't get stranded anywhere without diesel fuel.
KR
Nothing like a question to start a rumor,
nothing like a rumor to start a bit of panic buying
and a self fulfilling prophesy.
Mayhap you could contribute to avoiding it by cancelling the trip ?
Nahh, that would be TOO much...
Essential trips are ESSENTIAL !
Posted 2005-09-23 9:51 AM (#30862 - in reply to #30852) Subject: RE: diesel shortages in the Midwest?
Regular
Posts: 51 Location: DeWitt, AR
Dear Reg,
I found your first post a bit uncalled for. in 23 years of busting my butt at work and on the farm, I have never had a vacation in all of my adult life. NEVER! I have planned this one and only trip for a year and purchased the biggest extravagance of my life a LQ Trailer. My husband and I were lucky enough to be drawn to ride in the Custer State Park Buffalo Roundup.
As I watch my father slowly and painfully die of cancer and as I almost lost my husband to a horrible accident last fall, I decided it was time to live life for once and planned this trip.
I aplogize if my sincere and honest post and request for real information was perceived as my being a rumor monger and I am sorry that you find it unnecessary for me to finally go on my first vacation when I am 46 years old since that vacation comes at a time when hurricanes are impacting domestic fuel production.
Given the attitude in your first post, sounds like you need a bit of a vacation yourself.
Posted 2005-09-23 10:59 AM (#30863 - in reply to #30862) Subject: RE: diesel shortages in the Midwest?
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 335 Location: Decatur, Texas
Maybe I'm the only person who can see past Reg's posts for his sense of humor. Lots of people have none on this forum and life gets too complicated without humor. Anyway, I sincerely hope you enjoy your vacation and find that there is plenty of diesel fuel available - just watch out for price gouging.
Posted 2005-09-23 11:31 AM (#30864 - in reply to #30852) Subject: RE: diesel shortages in the Midwest?
Expert
Posts: 2689
Part of my "attitude" has been brought on by what I am seeing/hearing locally.
It seems EVERYONE is making a trip to the gas station with 1/2 to 3/4 tankful to top it off before a big price increase that may or may not come as the storm hits this week-end. They're passing tips to each other to do this. MayBE they're saving $5 (50c times 10 gallons) for this ONE fill-up/top-off, but they'll pay for the next one and they're consuming just by driving to the pump, not ALL of them are doing this "on the way home".
It adds up and I really DO think it is contributing to the shortage - the self fulfilling prophesy.
I don't begrudge ANYONE a vacation and I really DO wish I had taken one before or just after cancer came to THIS house.
I'd just like to do it without burning 50 or 60 gallons of diesel fuel a day, given the current situation.
I'm tired, I'm grumpy, I'm SICK of the exploitation.
Anyway, the flyingJ site and others might help with the original question, though I think the risk of stations quickly running dry is higher than I would want to take right now.
Until mid/late next week I probably won't venture beyond where what I have in the tank can get me home.
Posted 2005-09-23 12:04 PM (#30866 - in reply to #30852) Subject: RE: diesel shortages in the Midwest?
Regular
Posts: 51 Location: DeWitt, AR
Well, if I'm really lucky, I'll get stuck up in the Black Hills and get an extended vacation from the high heat of SE AR.
I'm not the sort that tops off my tank when crisises seem imminent. I live in a small town where the major gas stations are owned by one family/corporation. Every year at harvest time, they jack up the price of fuel cause farmers are hauling their soybeans and rice to the driers and they can gouge the farmers cause they have no choice.
We've got a farm fuel tank for our diesel tractor and if push comes to shove we can take out our tool box and put that in the back of the truck.
Posted 2005-09-23 12:57 PM (#30869 - in reply to #30852) Subject: RE: diesel shortages in the Midwest?
Expert
Posts: 1723 Location: michigan
Personally I am sick of this "they are out to get us" mentality towards fuel/gasoline companies. Most people with this attitude never even try to find out how gas/fuel is priced. they are content to sit there and make wild assumptions thinking that they are oh-so-smart when in fact, they don't have a clue.
After major storm systems wipe out production and refineries, oil companies work double overtime to get them up and running. Supplies usually return to normal much faster than anything our beloved govt can do. And its our beloved govt that places uncompromising regualtions- environmental regs that prohibit new exploration,bulding pipelines and refineries. Why do prices of diesel fules go up in the fall? because refineries start producing heat oil so they devert part of the production of fules to heating oil. of course if new refineries could be bulit, this could solve that problem not to mention the increased demand for diesel thanks to so many of us driving diesel trucks( increase the demand so goes the rpice especially when suppies are limited)
The fact is- there was never a shortage after katrina but a supply distribution problem. there was never a shortage in the 70's- that was direct result of govt price controls which were eliminated by Pres. Reagan. Most oil prices are set by the markets, which tend to panic anytime a storm or war is brewing. Don't forget to add the TAXES we pay on every gallon- talk about gouging let get mad about TAX gouging.
I would not worry about any "shortages" along the way. unless your in the path of the hurrican and zillions of people are hopping into their cars heading out of Dodge, you'll be fine. Like anything else, scarcity and demand determine the price so its up to you to choose how much your willing to spend on your fuel needs.
Posted 2005-09-23 1:34 PM (#30872 - in reply to #30869) Subject: RE: diesel shortages in the Midwest?
Veteran
Posts: 225 Location: Kansas City
Originally written by farmbabe on 2005-09-23 12:57 PM
And its our beloved govt that places uncompromising regualtions- environmental regs that prohibit new exploration,bulding pipelines and refineries..
President Bush has been bashed by all sorts of people for his pro-drilling and pro-oil company stance. So, one needs to state what part of the govt prohibits new exploration, etc. I can't completely blame the oil companies, many of my friends work there. The sell oil at the market level. Can the oil companies always be blamed when the local gas stations raises prices by 50 per gallon because of what they hear on the radio.
I know this will start a post-war, so just forgive me and move on, but one sort of terrorist is the so-called "pro-environment" people who do not want any engery exploration, and new refineries, and new power sources, etc. Their policies hold us hostage to foreign energy sources who we now have to realize, can wreck our economy and our personal finances, by withholding just a fraction of the oil we buy. Remember many of these pro-environment people think that farmers (who have good reason to take care of the land that they own) are the bad guys.
In central Kansas, they were going to build a large wind-farm (clean energy) but the environmental people said it would ruin the view (there is a lot of view left as you drive across 8 hours of flat desolate Kansas). So what would they have us to do?
We have to remember that if a storm can wipe out 25% of the fuel producing capacity of this entire country we need to be searching for either new sources or expanding and spreading out the assests of the technology we currently have.
Most states would not approve the addition of a power plant or refinery. My community just voted down a power plant expansion, yet where will we get the needed electricty as my near the city rural area booms?
Posted 2005-09-23 2:44 PM (#30874 - in reply to #30852) Subject: RE: diesel shortages in the Midwest?
Expert
Posts: 1723 Location: michigan
exactly- environmental wacko oppose burning trash,wind mills, hydro power,nuclear power, coal,oil, youname it, they can oppose it. Why? they don't want to solve the problem. And lets be honest its not the nutty fringe- its everyday people. Poepl who want a large refinery but Not In My Backyard. We want more oil exploration but Not in My Backyard.....we like hydro eletrci plants but Not in My Backyard...yet then same people complain about "shortages"
diesel shortages in the Midwest?
