TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — As the price of regular gasoline climbs, diesel prices are skyrocketing. The national average for a gallon of diesel is now $6.31 a gallon. Locally in Tampa, gas is $6.39 in many areas.
“I’ve never seen them this high,” truck driver Robbie Sparks said. “Unless on the West Coast, but this is the highest I’ve ever seen it over here.”
But it’s not just truck drivers like Robbie Sparks who are impacted by higher diesel prices. As economics professor Abby Hall of the University of Tampa told 8 On Your Side, any goods transported by those trucks are rising in price too.
“We can certainly think about things like food, and certainly when you’re talking about fruit or vegetables that has to be trucked in on a regular basis that might spoil quickly, you might see it there relatively quickly,” she said.
While Hall said unrest in the Middle East plays a role in diesel prices rising, she added that the United States’s oil refinery capacity was another reason.
“The US is operating at 98% capacity,” she said. “The ability to absorb or expand refining to help increase supply and bring down prices is just not that simple in the current context.”
As to whether consumers will see any noticeable price increases, Hall said it depends on how long diesel remains high.
“If this is something that’s transitory and corrects relatively quickly, consumers might not notice an upward trend, or at least not for very long,” she said.
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