War on Diesel?

Record inflation but let’s increase transportation costs. Brilliant as always.

Meanwhile, the sock puppet in the White House is demanding increased production from the same oil industry that he’s hell bent on putting out of businesses. An industry that he attacks and hamstrings at every turn. An industry that his party wants to regulate out of existence.
It’s a safe bet that you can expect a world of pain, probably for the rest of your life, if the left’s insane energy suicide plans are allowed to proceed.

It’s ok. He s going to Saudi Arabia to beg them for more oil in a couple of weeks. I wonder if he will bow to the king like president Hussein did.

Our mods got a complaint about this thread becoming political so a couple of posts were removed. It's certainly a discussion we should be having, but I don't know how to separate the politics from the topic. For now, the thread has been moved to the Yacht Club.

I certainly didn't make the complaint, but I can sure tell you that when I read the thread this morning I thought to myself "this will be shut down shortly". Facts are great, but opinions are bound to derail a conversation and cause hard feelings on a Forum. I'm all for a good political debate, but it should be far-to-face over a glass of whiskey rather than a keyboard.

I have long believed that modest annual increases in gas & diesel prices doesn't have much of an impact on boat sales. But, we're well past 'modest' increases at this point and tax increases like will only add to that dynamic. Boat sales were generally forecast to be better than average in 2022. I'm curious if that's still the case. Between the Russia problem and now the runaway fuel prices and the looming recession they're helping to create, it's hard to remember any series of events that would be impactful to the boating industry as these sequence of events could be at least since the financial crash of 2008. The industry could look hugely different 12-months from now.

As to the title question of this thread “War on Diesel?” …I’ll let the current president respond so that my post is not construed as political opinion.

The increase in CT only applies to motor diesel. FWIW, I don't believe I've ever seen dyed diesel taxed by any state. And in a lot of states, you can actually apply for a tax refund if you've purchased gas for boat.

I would add that CT is one of the worst states when it comes to motor fuel tax diversion. IOW, they take a significant percentage of their motor fuel tax revenue and spend in places other than roads & bridges. The last I read, CT diverts more than 30% of that revenue.

I am not going to make a political comment - I have no dog in that race - other than to note that in most countries there is the claim that 'your guy' let this happen which 'my guy' would not have done. Often believed. Rarely true.
That said the world economy was overheated by 2008 and much of that was fueled by intangible assets growth - derivatives and the like. It needed fixing (a correction in economic lingo) but this was avoided -too many were enjoying the ride- and the base problems were sidestepped. We careened along on our merry way. Cryptocurrency wealth added to the mess. Then came an unexpected pandemic and a scary little war that might expand into a big scary war. Inflation cannot be a surprise,
America has also been somewhat shielded from world energy prices, often by releasing strategic reserves to offset market forces, but that ruse seems to be running out of gas. (no pun intended). You now pay what Europeans are used to.
In a world where trillions of dollars of wealth are tied up in 'assets' like derivatives and cryptos which are not concrete and poorly, if at all, understood by the majority of the population it follows that tangible 'real things' land, houses, yachts, roast beef, eggs, diesel fuel gain a value all out of proportion to their historical values or any intrinsic value which they may have. So a 250,000 dollar house is now a million dollar house and everything else follows in lock step.
There is also a belief that some group 'they' caused this and that 'they' control it and can fix it. After 77 years on this planet I have concluded that the world is an all terrain vehicle careening along, whose occupants bicker and fight and somehow try to keep the vehicle from toppling over without ever having any clear idea where they are going or what they are doing. There is no 'they'. It actually has worked better than it should
That said, Is a correction coming? Inevitable.
Will it be messy and hurtful? Probably for many. Yup.
At 77 do I really care? Nope.
Would I want to be 35? Nope. (well healthwise maybe)
Cheers

I think the clip RER posted makes the whole plan very clear. Since day one, this administration has waged a war on fossil fuel starting with halting the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and implementing hundreds of regulations hampering energy production. We used to be energy independent just two years ago. We used to export energy two years ago. Now we re begging dictators and terrorist states to sell us more oil. Yes, terrorist states as in the kingdom from which most of the 9/11 terrorist came from

The difference in fuel prices between the US & Europe have absolutely nothing with the wholly insignificant releases of strategic oil reserves (which really have been nothing more than proverbial 'drops in a bucket' and instead, have just about everything to do with the the difference in fuel taxes across the entire supply chain in the EU vs US. Simply put, the EU countries tax the bejeebus out of fuel. For instance, at the end of last year, 60% of the retail price of fuel in the UK is comprised of taxes. Conversely, the federal tax on retail fuel sold in the US is a paltry $.18/gallon. States will then add another $.20 to $.60 on top of that, at most.

With respect to the current US situation, unfortunately what we're experiencing now is in fact largely driven by the enormous shift in domestic oil production strategy of Joe Biden relative to the former administration. The current administration campaigned on a platform to 'end oil' and took steps to make domestic oil production HUGELY more expensive largely through regulatory burden. He did this literally in his first hours in office. Guess what? It worked.

And Ralph is correct about the pandering. Biden’s public comments are pure political double dealing. Political theater. You can be sure they are high-fiving these fuel prices in private. They don’t want anyone using fossil fuels.
The left wants all energy from sources that cannot even come close to meeting our needs. Wind, solar, unicorn farts, and whatever else a bunch of out of touch elitists can dream up. And they don’t give a **** what you go through in their futile attempt to get there.
Enjoy your boats while you still can. Even at these fuel prices. It will probably never get better. Yachts consuming 75 gallons of diesel per hour aren’t in the green new deal.

Here in CT there is sales tax on off-road diesel, but no highway tax. The OP refers to the highway tax which y’all can argue about, but this forum is about boats and the highway tax is irrelevant.

on this topic, CT fuel docks are slowly migrating to a new system of tax assessment. In the old days all fuel docks charged highway tax and it was up to consumers to file a tax return with the state to apply for a refund of the difference between the highway tax and the sales tax rate. Now many, if not most, fuel docks have an exemption from charging highway tax, charging sales tax instead.