I guess it was back in November when it started to get cold and the COVID-19 ice began to form yet again.
I also believe that was when our politicians made a special guest appearance at their place of employment – Canada’s Parliament.
It was then that it was decreed, without debate or input or discussion from the public or transport sector, that the border would be closed to those Canadian truckers returning from the U.S. who had not been fully vaccinated.
This was to take effect on Saturday, January 15, 2022.
This would mean that we could be immediately short 15,000 drivers who deliver essential goods like fresh fruit and vegetables, in the dead of winter, amid a global pandemic.
On January 12, 2022, those same politicians, or maybe it was a single bureaucrat who just returned from the grocery store (as I did recently to buy a single, unglamorous non-exotic cauliflower priced at $6.99!) – reversed the decision!
The reasons, or out-of-sight and out-of-budget prices is the high cost of commodities such as crude oil and refined products such as gasoline; but at this time of year diesel fuel is in the driver’s seat.
You can talk all you want about the evils of fossil fuels as opposed to the castles in the sky sermons on the virtues of wind, solar, and EV alternatives. Putting food on the tables of millions of Canadians doesn’t get there by some alternative energy carpet.
Because when the pedal hits the metal it’s diesel power that gets the food from the farm to the distribution centres to our tables.
Without the diesel-powered trucking industry there would be nothing on the shelves.
So, where are diesel prices going?
Nowhere but up in the short term.
The same goes for gasoline prices.
If we look at supply and demand from the latest EIA inventory report, the picture is stormy.
If we lump crude, gasoline, and distillate inventory numbers together then supply is down on average 9% versus last year, while demand for gasoline, distillates, and Jet fuel is up 15%.
Until such time as the gap closes there is no downside to the equation.
To close the gap and get consumer prices down I suggest politicians get out of the passing lane and let the transport industry save their – and our bacon!
They know how to do it.
– Roger McKnight – B.Sc., Senior Petroleum Analyst
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