A diesel crisis could slam the economy

[mystery-ak]

July 11, 2022
A diesel crisis could slam the economy
By John M. Contino

U.S. oil refineries are running at 94% capacity. They are refining one million barrels of oil per day less than in 2020, due in part to a conversion to biofuels, and an industry move towards a “net zero carbon strategy,” which means less investment in refineries that use hydrocarbons. An explosion in the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery in 2019 closed that refinery permanently. The capacity of existing refineries has been expanded over the years, but a major refinery hasn’t been built in the U.S. since 1976.

A crisis more serious than $5 gasoline may be brewing, and it revolves around diesel fuel. Diesel engines power not just the big rigs on the road, but all the trains that supply coal to electric power plants and fertilizer to farms. Most tractors and combines run on diesel, as do fire trucks, ambulances, and military vehicles. Many of the mammoth vessels that transport shipping containers across the oceans are powered by huge diesel engines, and the furnaces of some older residential and commercial buildings burn diesel.

Diesel engines require diesel gasoline, diesel oil and diesel exhaust fluids (DEF), and shortages of the last two items may be reaching a critical stage. Since 2010, the government has required DEF to be injected into the exhaust stream from diesel engines to meet current emission standards. From Newsweek:

    The U.S. could soon experience a severe shortage of diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), impacting U.S. drivers already hit with soaring fuel prices. DEF is a solution made up of urea and de-ionized water that is needed for almost everything that runs on diesel. It… works by converting nitrogen oxide produced by diesel engines into nitrogen and steam… Russia is a major fertilizer exporter and a top exporter of urea, which is manufactured as a derivative of natural gas. Supplies, therefore, have been impacted by the war.

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https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/07/a_diesel_crisis_could_slam_the_economy.html

[DefiantMassRINO]

It could get worse ... if there is a diesel shortage, chances are, there will also be a No.2 Home Heating Oil shortage, especially if it's Winter.

[roamer_1]

A wholly manufactured crisis.

[Fishrrman]

Here's a question for ya (some in this forum will know):

Suppose... just suppose that Mr. Trump re-assumes office in 2025, with Ron DeSantis as his VP (and who will likely win in 2028).

Suppose Mr. Trump went to those who design, build and operate refineries and said "if government removes every obstacle in front of you, can you get, say, 4 or 5 new refineries up-and-running in record time?"

Suppose the builders replied "we'll give it a try, if you get government out of our way".

And suppose the new Trump administration did just that.

How long WOULD it take to get a brand-new refinery up-and-running...?

[jafo2010]

The strategy to reduce the global population may well get translated into USA citizens freezing to death during cold times, and dying of heat stroke during hot times.  Why?  Because the Biden Idiocracy has marched us to the precipice of falling to a depth that kills just about everything. 

They are shutting down 95% of our energy capability with little to replace it.  It means brown and black outs across the nation, on a regular basis.  It will take 10 years to resolve their folly.  I can conceive a million people dying from this idiocy.  Uggh.

I tell you, the expression that liberalism is a mental illness is overwhelmingly minimizing the reality.  They are enemies of the American people, and either we pull our heads from our posterior, or we die in large numbers.  And there will be no quick solutions.

[Smokin Joe]

A wholly manufactured crisis.

Yes, it is.

But the bottom line is that there is already enough of a shortage to jack the price of diesel, and with it, the price of everything that travels by train or truck or has to be dug out of the ground or moved with heavy equipment at some point.

A shortage that meant no supply, especially in critical areas could be devastating, but there is an easier way.

Just screw with the supply of DEF--which is about a third urea, and they'd use this nitrogen nonsense to do it. Without it most modern diesels won't run.

[roamer_1]

Just screw with the supply of DEF--which is about a third urea, and they'd use this nitrogen nonsense to do it. Without it most modern diesels won't run.

That's the whole thing right there.. and there AIN'T a shortage... For some reason, Union Pacific suddenly decided to limit how many tankers they'd lend for DEF shipment, artificially creating a 'shortage'.

Of course, UP did it all by themselves... Uncle Nanny didn't have anything to do with it... 

By the time they get converted to truck shipment at the rates they used to ship by rail, it'll be too damn late.

[Smokin Joe]

Here's a question for ya (some in this forum will know):

Suppose... just suppose that Mr. Trump re-assumes office in 2025, with Ron DeSantis as his VP (and who will likely win in 2028).

Suppose Mr. Trump went to those who design, build and operate refineries and said "if government removes every obstacle in front of you, can you get, say, 4 or 5 new refineries up-and-running in record time?"

Suppose the builders replied "we'll give it a try, if you get government out of our way".

And suppose the new Trump administration did just that.

How long WOULD it take to get a brand-new refinery up-and-running...?

That depends on how many different two or three person, Soros backed, ecowhacko groups bring suit to stop the construction, for anything from disturbing 'sacred ground' to flutterbys, to newts or not-so-common plants, or to preserve scenic beauty (even if it isn't), or a host of other things that leave the people building it in the position of proving they aren't damaging/destroying/killing off/interfering with the mating habits of whatever the plaintiffs are allegedly trying to protect.

It's the tactic that repeatedly stalled the Keystone XL Pipeline until Biden could kill the project after a dozen years and 1.6 Billion dollars were invested in it.

[GtHawk]

That depends on how many different two or three person, Soros backed, ecowhacko groups bring suit to stop the construction, for anything from disturbing 'sacred ground' to flutterbys, to newts or not-so-common plants, or to preserve scenic beauty (even if it isn't), or a host of other things that leave the people building it in the position of proving they aren't damaging/destroying/killing off/interfering with the mating habits of whatever the plaintiffs are allegedly trying to protect.

It's the tactic that repeatedly stalled the Keystone XL Pipeline until Biden could kill the project after a dozen years and 1.6 Billion dollars were invested in it.

Just build the refineries on military bases, you know the way King Joe was talking about doing with baby abattoirs. Just putting it out there would cause such a wonderfully insane reaction with the left that was okay with the idea of butchering babies by private enterprise on federal land.

[DefiantMassRINO]

An Operation Warp Speed for refining capacity?

1.) Re-open, renovate, and modernize closed refineries.
2.) Expand capacity at exisiting refiners.
3.) Build new refineries.

Without special authority granted (Defense Production Act?) to it by Congress, progress would be delayed and impeded by lawsuits in Federal and State courts.

Another option, used temporarily after Hurricane Katrina, would be to allow for the greater importation of foreign distillates.  Though expedient, I'd hate to see another industry driven offshore by the Government.

[Kamaji]

An Operation Warp Speed for refining capacity?

1.) Re-open, renovate, and modernize closed refineries.
2.) Expand capacity at exisiting refiners.
3.) Build new refineries.

Without special authority granted (Defense Production Act?) to it by Congress, progress would be delayed and impeded by lawsuits in Federal and State courts.

Another option, used temporarily after Hurricane Katrina, would be to allow for the greater importation of foreign distillates.  Though expedient, I'd hate to see another industry driven offshore by the Government.