ATA Seeks Diesel Standard as Part of Energy Plan

Click here to write a Letter to the Editor.

merican Trucking Associations said Tuesday it asked the Department of Energy to consider creating a single national diesel fuel standard as part of a long-term energy strategy.

The request was filed to prevent high fuel prices from crimping the nation’s economy, ATA said.

In a letter to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman dated Friday, ATA president Bill Graves wrote that the “ongoing proliferation of so-called boutique fuels adds to the complexity and costs of diesel fuel refining. The trucking industry believes that a single national diesel fuel standard is the best way to ensure an adequate, uninterrupted supply of this commodity.”

Diesel prices have soared this year, setting four consecutive all-time records from late March into mid-April, when they peaked at $2.316. They have fallen more than 12 cents since then, as crude oil prices have slid. (Click here for previous coverage.)

Fuel is often the second-highest operating expense after labor for a trucking company, making up 10% to 25% of operating expenses, ATA said. The motor carrier industry consumes more than 30 billion gallons of diesel fuel every year, it said.

In 2004, the industry paid over $10 billion more for diesel fuel than in 2003 and so far this year is on pace to spend an another $10 billion over what it paid in 2004, ATA said.

Graves said that while the economy is still solid, rising energy costs have sapped consumers and businesses of some purchasing power, weakening the broader consumer sector and potentially cutting into economic growth.