The average price for a gallon of diesel fuel in Iowa was at a record high six dollars, six cents a gallon Monday according to Triple-A. Tyler Priest, a University of Iowa historian, has written four books about the oil industry. He says diesel fuel is often called the workhorse of the global economy because it fuels semis, combines and tractors, construction equipment, trains and ships. Barges also rely on diesel-powered tugboats.
US refineries tend to produce twice as much gasoline as they do what’s called middle distillate — which is used to make diesel and jet fuel.
Global supplies of gas, diesel and other petroleum derivatives are tight and Priest says refineries are producing every barrel of crude they can get. The US is also exporting record amounts of diesel.
The price of diesel in Iowa today is about 58 percent higher than it was a year ago. An analysis by Penn State University found Midwest farmers use about three gallons of diesel for every acre of corn and soybeans they harvest — suggesting that with today’s price it will cost Iowa farmers at least 12-hundred dollars more to harvest a 160-acre field of corn this year.
