Fuel

A report on the proposed Phase 2 greenhouse-gas rules found 87% of medium- and heavy-duty fleet operators surveyed earlier supported increased fuel efficiency and fewer emissions because the changes would also reduce what typically is trucking’s second-biggest expense, fuel.

The average price of diesel fuel in the United States declined 0.2 cent a gallon to $2.615, the 12th straight weekly decline, the Department of Energy reported Aug. 17.

The slide in the U.S. diesel average price reached an 11th straight week, with the Department of Energy reporting another decline Aug. 10, this time by 5.1 cents a gallon to $2.617.

If crude’s slump back to a six-year low looks bad, it’s even worse when you reflect that summer is supposed to be peak season for oil.

For want of a refinery unit in Indiana, oil prices are tumbling in Oklahoma and Alberta while gasoline prices in the Midwest are soaring.

Oil sank to a six-year low Aug. 13 as rising crude output and signs that China’s economy is weakening increased concern that a global surplus will worsen.

The Department of Energy lowered its 2015 forecast for U.S. diesel prices 13 cents to $2.73 a gallon and its 2016 projection by 23 cents to $2.81.

The global oil glut will last through 2016 as the strongest demand growth in five years and faltering supply fail to clear the surplus, according to the International Energy Agency.

Crude closed at the lowest level in more than six years in New York as OPEC production climbed while China’s devaluation of the yuan bolstered concern that the world’s second-biggest economy will slow.

Diesel’s spring-and-summer price slide has reached an 11th straight week with the Department of Energy reporting another decline Aug. 10, this time by 5.1 cents a gallon to $2.617.