Editorial: Heads in the Sand

Five months ago, when the national average retail price of diesel fuel stood at $1.479 a gallon, Transport Topics, in this space, exhorted the federal government to do something about skyrocketing fuel costs, which were draining the lifeblood out of the trucking industry.

Today, with the average price at $1.471, the government’s collective head is still planted deeply in the sand. Unfortunately, there is no crude oil in the sands and quagmires around the Potomac River.

In March, we complained that the only tactic the Clinton Administration seemed to be employing to attempt to force the oil-producing nations to speed up production and provide adequate supplies was jawboning. Little did we realize that the hot-air campaign of the early spring would look like the good old days as summer begins winding down.

We’ve gone from an ineffectual, half-hearted federal effort to lower fuel prices, to a non-effort. And, not surprisingly, these efforts have yielded no results.

These days, we have the president of Venezuela, one of our neighbors and a so-called moderate in the oil bazaar, traveling to Iraq to put his arm around a despot who triggered an oil crisis and a war all by himself. Our neighbor stuck his thumb in our eye during his trip, saying he wasn’t going to be dictated to by Uncle Sam.

Meanwhile, we now have predictions that not only will diesel prices again cross the $2 a gallon level, but that diesel may soon cost more than gasoline.

We currently have the lowest distillate inventory levels in years, and the home heating oil season is set to begin all too soon.

“We’ve been saying inventories had to start growing all summer,” said Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service, in order to produce enough diesel fuel and home heating oil before winter. “Now,” he said last week, “it may be too late.”

Sometime during this winter, because of the federal government’s inaction, the White House and Congress may have to decide between heating America’s homes or putting fuel in the trucks that carry America’s economy.

Stay tuned.