Editorial: A Long, Cold Winter?

Fuel prices have been trickling downward, and are now off seven cents over the past five weeks. But that is a pittance compared with the skyrocketing increases of months gone by. The national average retail price for diesel is still more than $1.60 a gallon.

And all indications are that things are likely to get worse long before they get much better.

With every weekly report of a small price decrease in this past month or so, oil futures have continued to rise, a definite portent of higher prices to come.

Perhaps even more disturbing is the steady report of declining inventories of petroleum products, especially in home heating oil.

According to data released last week, home heating oil supplies are less than 50% of year-ago levels in some areas of the country, and that was before the first real cold wave of the season took its toll. Heating oil inventories declined 1.4% last week — and we have a long way still to go. Weather forecasters are predicting a colder than normal winter.

Because heating oil and diesel fuel are virtually the same product, those low inventories could be a harbinger of even worse things to come for trucking.

First, of course, tight supplies nearly always mean higher prices. And inadequate supplies of home heating oil could well lead the government to divert petroleum away from truck stops and gasoline stations to furnaces in family homes.

The situation again illustrates the heavy burden we are carrying for the lack of a national energy policy. We are unable to refine sufficient petroleum to meet demand for all products, despite the apparent availability of enough crude oil.

The failure of the domestic refiners to adequately stockpile No. 2 can be traced back to this summer, when refiners dedicated all their resources to producing gasoline because profit margins were higher than on diesel fuel or heating oil. Even so, refiners weren’t able to buy enough crude to satisfy all of the demand, because the oil suppliers were curtailing production to force prices higher.

This could be a long, cold winter for families that burn heating oil to keep warm, and for truckers. Let’s hope the next occupant of the White House pays more attention to the nation’s energy needs.