American Trucking Associations Monday called on Congress to increase the transparency of commodities futures markets and impose “reasonable aggregate position limits on energy commodities,” in an effort to stem the price spikes and record high prices of last summer.
Diesel has risen 56 cents per gallon since March “despite supplies being at a historical high and diesel demand at a 9-year low,” said ATA President Bill Graves. “It seems that more is at play than just the fundamentals of supply and demand.”
Last July, diesel set an all-time record of $4.764 a gallon, gasoline set a $4.114 record and crude oil set a closing-price record of $145.29 per barrel.
The Energy Department Monday put the prices at $2.616 for diesel and $2.691 for gasoline, while oil closed below $70 a barrel, Bloomberg reported. (Click here for related story.)
While fuel prices are not as high as last summer’s records, oil has seen a dramatic and inexplicable run-up in price over the past five months, ATA said.
Despite U.S. oil inventories near a 19-year high and oil demand down 6% from a year earlier, the price of crude has more than doubled since February, it said.
“Demand for petroleum products in the United States is lower today than it was 10 years ago and supply is higher today than it was in 1982,” said Bob Costello, ATA’s chief economist.
ATA earlier this month joined a coalition of 80 trade associations in writing to Congress asking for help to prevent excessive speculation in commodities markets.
