Fuel Price Surge Triggers Alarm

With diesel costing more than $2 a gallon at the pump in some areas of the nation, truck operators and their trade organizations turned last week to Washington to do something — anything — to stem the alarming tide of rising fuel prices.

	More fuel coverage
	Truckers Protest as Diesel Prices Surge (Jan. 26) ATA President Walter B. McCormick, Jr.'s letter to President Clinton on the diesel price hikes
	Fuel Prices
	Week of Jan. 31:
	source	price	change
	DOE	143.9	+2.1
	Comdata*	141.7	+11.5
	OPIS self-serve*	143.0	+11.2
	OPIS wholesale*	89.4	+9.4
	*Comdata and OPIS figures are from week of Jan. 22.

Without prompt action, they warned, many small companies could be forced out of business.

Most favored dipping into the 565 million barrels of oil stockpiled in the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a byproduct of the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s. Although Energy Secretary Bill Richardson ruled out such a move, he said the Energy Department would divert 5 million barrels of crude oil intended for the reserve into the general market in hopes of dampening price surges.

American Trucking Associations President Walter B. McCormick Jr. joined industry colleagues in urging President Clinton to take measures to help motor carriers, including drawing on federal oil reserves and looking into claims of profiteering by some sellers of petroleum products.

For the full story, see the Jan. 31 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.