From “Really Graceful”
Okay so…diesel prices are skyrocketing, isolated fuel outages are being reported across Michigan, Florida, and Texas, airlines are cutting flights, and social media has been flooded with calls for truckers to park their rigs beginning October 1. And no, there is no ~officially confirmed~ nationwide trucker strike—but when operating costs exceed what a load pays…does it really matter? Trucks can be priced out of being operational.
In this follow-up investigation, we examine America’s tightening diesel supply, refinery disruptions in the Midwest, Saudi Arabia’s canceled oil shipments to Europe and the ongoing and recent attacks on their infrastructure, the declining Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Iran’s heavily subsidized gasoline prices (literally pennies for a liter of gas) and the economic pressure now spreading through trucking, farming, aviation and food distribution.
We also cover the history of the 1973–1974 oil crisis, when rising fuel costs helped trigger an eleven-day independent trucker shutdown, and ask what happens when modern supply disruptions collide with historically strained inventories and an economy built around constant transportation (spoiler: it’s not good).