By Barnaby "Bottom-Line" Coyne
Six dollars a gallon. That's what a trucker, a farmer, or a delivery driver is now paying for diesel in America, a record high, according to CNBC. It's the fuel that moves the freight that stocks the shelves, and its price doesn't stay quiet for long.
The spike is being driven by two wars at once. Ukraine's strikes on Russian oil refineries have been knocking out fuel-processing capacity, tightening global supply. Meanwhile, the conflict tied to Iran has rattled the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that a huge share of the world's oil passes through, according to ABC News, which reported oil prices rising after strikes near Saudi Arabia and around the strait.
President Trump weighed in over the weekend, urging Ukraine to stop "knocking out" Russian refineries — a request tied directly to the diesel spike now showing up at U.S. pumps, CNBC reported. In a separate move on the Iran side of the ledger, Trump said the U.S. may hold on to Iranian oil the way it has handled Venezuelan crude, saying revenue from that Venezuela arrangement has "paid for the war many times," according to CNBC.
None of this is abstract for the industry footing the bill. Baker Hughes, the oilfield services giant, told CNBC it has yet to see higher borrowing costs slow investment in major energy projects — AI data centers are driving fresh demand for liquefied natural gas even as rates stay elevated.
But record diesel isn't a Wall Street story first. It's a trucking-invoice story, a grocery-delivery-fee story, a farm-diesel-tank story. When the fuel that moves everything else gets more expensive, that cost doesn't stay with the refiner.
Somebody's paying for this. Let's find out who.
— Compiled from reporting by CNBC and ABC News.
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