HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — AAA reports diesel fuel prices have hit a record high.<\/p>\n
In Houston on Tuesday, AAA reports that a gallon of diesel is going for an average of $5.72.<\/p>\n
That’s more than $2.50 higher than a year ago, and about six cents higher than Monday.<\/p>\n
Prices aren’t expected to drop anytime soon, especially with multiple global conflicts disrupting the supply chain.<\/p>\n
Atkinson Farms, which opened in 2004 and is owned by Mike Atkinson, provides vegetables at restaurants like Local Foods and Dish Society.<\/p>\n
“Like you being a reporter, there’s a lot of things that are really, really good; there are some things that are not very good,” Atkinson said.<\/p>\n
Not very good right now: diesel fuel prices, which every tractor on Atkinson Farms runs on.<\/p>\n
And then there are the higher costs of sending and receiving supplies.<\/p>\n
“Two years ago, it used to be to get a pallet from Alamo, Texas to here was $450, for one day. Now, it’s over $700.” Atkinson said.<\/p>\n
Atkinson hasn’t raised produce prices yet, but he knows he’ll have to if costs keep going up.<\/p>\n
“I’m the least political guy that there is. I’ve always been raised, whoever is elected, support them,” he said. “I spend 60, 70, 80 hours a week working. I don’t have enough time for all that stuff. Somebody smarter than me will figure out.”<\/p>\n
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, only about 3% of passenger cars in the country use diesel fuel.<\/p>\n
But the vehicles used to move the goods we all need do use diesel.<\/p>\n
And when those costs go up, somebody’s going to have to pay for it.<\/p>\n
“I can’t say, ‘Oh, I’m going to stop going to the pump,’ because then I can’t work,” trucker Wendell Jenkins said. “At what point is enough enough, at what point is it ridiculous?”<\/p>\n
Jenkins rushes over time-sensitive oil field equipment like pipes and valves.<\/p>\n
“The money that I do make, it goes right back into the truck,” he explained.<\/p>\n
For truckers that ABC13 met at the McCarty Truck Park in east Houston, the impact of the prices is obvious.<\/p>\n
What isn’t so obvious is what will happen next.<\/p>\n
“We can talk about it, we can say a lot of things about it,” Jesee Grines said. “But at the end of the day, what can we do about it?”<\/p>\n
Atkinson said he tries to brush off that helpless feeling.<\/p>\n
He’s seen it all, farming in the Spring area since 1961, and hopes these high fuel prices, too, shall pass.<\/p>\n
“You’re going to quit doing the things you’ve done forever? No. You’re going to quit eating? No. You’re going to start walking? We walk enough a day! I walk 8 to 10 miles a day every day,” he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
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