Extremely Low Supply of Diesel ‘Terrifying’: Montana Attorney General

Continued diesel lows will have a ripple effect across the economy, he says

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen in an interview on the "Newsmakers" program on Nov. 3, 2022, in a still from video. (NTD)

The current low level of diesel fuel is “terrifying,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said, due to its potential effect on the supply chain and food production.

As the United States faces record-high inflation and gas prices, concerns are rising about inadequate supplies of diesel fuel, which, according to gas companies, will only drive up its price.

“It’s frankly terrifying. We’re at less than a month’s supply of diesel fuel in this country. To put this in perspective, we haven’t had a diesel shortage this major since 1951,” Knudsen told the hosts of “Newsmakers,” a collaboration program between The Epoch Times and NTD, during a Nov. 1 interview. “What you have to realize is we have a much higher demand for diesel fuel today than we did in 1951.”

Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that, as of Oct. 21, the United States had 26 days of supply, a drop from around 34 days five weeks ago.

This shortage should concern the shipping industry, the freight industry, trucking, and railroads, Knudsen said.

These transportation industries will face higher prices and “that’s just going to further exacerbate our supply chain problems in this country,” he added.

Truckers are the “lifeblood” of the country, and the present administration should realize that “trucks run on diesel fuel, they don’t run on fairy dust and rainbows,” said Knudsen. “This is going to have tremendous ripple across our economy.”

According to Mansfield Energy, diesel markets operate comfortably with about a 35- to 40-day supply and start to face problems when supply gets down to 30 days, so the 25-day supply is a critical issue.

“There is simply a shortage of product as compared to three years ago,” said Michael Mansfield, CEO of Mansfield Energy, during an interview with Fox & Friends on Nov. 2, adding that there is about 1 million barrels a day less diesel refining capacity than in years past.

“There have been several refinery shutdowns. These refineries won’t come back online and the product is not as available as it once was. So, we have to import more or just simply pay higher prices,” said Mansfield.

Government Pushing ESG

(Deemerwha studio/Shutterstock)

This diesel shortage is a part of a larger problem, the attack on American fossil fuels, Knudsen said, as the government pushes its climate agenda via banks and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies, rewarding them for not investing in fossil fuel.

Knudsen criticized the progressive left for using questionable means to implement their climate agenda via big corporations because they couldn’t get it done through the legislative process and consensus.

“We shouldn’t be surprised when we see that those industries are disincentivized from producing more of what we need in this country. They’re under full-out attack, not just from the administration, but from this administration’s friends in big banking,” he continued.

Knudsen, along with 18 other state attorneys general, launched an investigation into six major banks for “potentially deceptive trade practices tied to ESG policy-related actions.”

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“It is believed that the Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo, with oversight by the UN, collectively agreed that each of their lending practices will reflect the target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, with interim targets in 2030, based on the Paris Agreement,” Knudsen’s office wrote in an Oct. 19 press statement.

Meanwhile, Mansfield did not specifically mention ESG policies but said regulatory costs have made it impossible for some oil refineries to continue their business.

Storage tanks are seen at Marathon Petroleum's Los Angeles Refinery, which processes domestic and imported crude oil into California Air Resources Board (CARB) gasoline, CARB diesel fuel, and other petroleum products, in Carson, Calif., on March 11, 2022. (Bing Guan/File Photo/Reuters)

Some refineries have been damaged but “others have simply closed, just because there’s the regulatory cost of running the refineries, it’s gotten to the point where they simply can’t do business anymore. I believe there are about seven fewer refineries in the U.S. today than there were in 2019,” said Mansfield.