posted May 15, 2008
I, too, have observed the gas prices going up and up. My personal vehicle is a Dodge diesel truck. My father bought it new in 1997 and, when he passed away in 1999, we purchased it from my mother who no longer needed it.
At that time, diesel fuel was anywhere from 30-40 cents per gallon cheaper than regular. This past Monday morning, when I drove past my neighborhood gas station in Hixson, I noticed that regular gas was 361.9 and diesel was 417.9. By that afternoon regular had gone up to 367.9, a 6-cent per gallon increase, while diesel had gone up to 439.9, a 22-cent per gallon increase.
Just this afternoon passing the same store, I noticed that regular gas had actually decreased two cents per gallon down to 365.9. I anxiously awaited seeing the diesel sign, not expecting it to have actually gone down, because it never does, but not only had it not gone down, it was up another dime per gallon, to 449.9.
I would love for anyone to explain the justification for this. I do not know this to be fact, but have been told by several people that diesel fuel is a by-product of gasoline and costs less to produce. I have also read and heard that modern diesel engines are as clean and, in some cases even cleaner burning, than gasoline engines.
To support this, I've never had any problems whatsoever in passing Chattanooga's unfair emissions test to get my tag renewed. I say unfair because of Chattanooga's geographic location resulting in people from other counties and states who commute here to work are not required to adhere to these standards.
While it would appear that diesel fuel users are easy pickings for tax dollars from industry, farming and trucking by both our federal and state governments, I think that some consideration or allowances should be given to those individuals who drive personal diesel vehicles. My money has gone to pad the pockets of oil companies, or whoever it is that is truly profiting, for long enough.
Melanie Henderson
Hixson
* * *
It's the war.
Brian Wood
Apison
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No, it's the greenies.
Reducing the sulfur content of diesel from 500 parts per million to 50 PPM does not come without a cost, and that cost is not linear. It costs more to reduce from 100 PPM to 50 PPM than it does to reduce from 500 PPM to 250 PPM.
Neither does it make sense to do so when there is an impending, or existing, shortage.
Royce E. Burrage, Jr.
Royce@OfficiallyChapped.org
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