While there’s plenty of grumbling in Iowa over gasoline prices being well north of four-dollars a gallon, University of Iowa Professor Tyler Priest, who teaches a course on U-S energy policy, says a much larger problem is coming into focus. “Diesel prices have doubled. They’ve risen much faster than gasoline prices because they’re traded globally and the seasonal demand is less easy to predict,” Priest says. “Increases in diesel prices are going to be transmitted throughout the economy more than increasing gasoline prices.” Priest notes that diesel fuel has much different applications and is used in long-haul trucking, marine shipping, agriculture and industry. Triple-A says diesel is averaging five-dollars 36-cents a gallon in Iowa, that’s up more than two dollars a gallon from this date a year ago. Priest says another critical fuel, liquefied natural gas (LNG), is also going to be in shorter supply.
