Despite everything that’s going on in the world, one element of society that seems to be showing some semblance of stability has been fuel prices — something that we could not have said just two years ago.
On July 15, 2024, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that average diesel prices across the country hit about $3.83 a gallon, an increase of just 2 cents from the same date exactly a year ago. At the same time, the average per-gallon price for gasoline dropped just over 6 cents. Those modest year-on-year changes are in stark contrast with the price drop for the previous 12-month period, when per-gallon diesel prices dropped nearly a dollar and gas prices fell more than $1.60 from the previous year’s abnormal highs. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 was largely blamed as a major culprit for that year’s fuel price spikes. Prices have settled even though there remains no end in sight for that conflict. The same can be said of the Israel-Hamas war, which has been raging since October, although that seems to have had less of a long-term effect on prices.
As is usually the case, prices have been highest on the West Coast of the U.S., where they’re holding near $4.45 a gallon for diesel and about $4.19 for gas — a drop of about a meager cent and a half for diesel and a more substantial 36 cents for gas from the same date in 2023. West Coast prices remain lopsided toward California, where per-gallon diesel prices clocked in at $4.93 and gasoline hit $4.49 — a diesel price increase of about 8 cents a gallon and gasoline price drop of approximately 23 cents a gallon.
Locally speaking, the Top 5 American cities whose end users pay the most for gasoline per gallon are, in order from highest to lowest: San Francisco ($4.54), Los Angeles ($4.44), Seattle ($4.35), Chicago ($4.02) and Boston ($3.50).
As for alternative fuels, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has measured prices only through April 2024, but given the relative lack of movement in diesel and gas rates over the past year, it’s easy enough to make an apples-to-apples comparison.
Biodiesel (B99-B100) is easily the most expensive of the lot, which posted an average national price of $4.57 a gallon between April 1 and April 15, 2024, according to the DOE’s Alternative Fuels Data Center. Not far behind is Biodiesel (B20) at $3.94 a gallon, or roughly a dime more than the cost of standard diesel (the benefits of biodiesel versus petroleum-based fuels aren’t always price-related, but emissions/sustainability-oriented).
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is next in line at $3.85 a diesel gallon equivalent (DGE), followed by propane (a “cleaner” petroleum-based fuel) at $3.45 a gallon. Then comes ethanol (E85), which was just below the $3 mark at $2.96 a gallon and finally, compressed natural gas (CNG), with a rate of $2.90 a gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE).
Harder to measure, at least in gallonage terms, is what it costs to charge an electric vehicle (EV) versus a diesel- or gasoline-powered one. A number of factors can affect the charging cost, like battery size/load capacity, the variability of electricity costs from state to state, etc.
According to Yale Climate Connections, the national average to charge an EV was $1.41 an “eGallon” at the beginning of 2024, less than half the national average to fill a vehicle with a gallon of gasoline.
Of course, with any alternative fuels, the cost savings would be realized over time, given the generally higher costs for alternatively fueled equipment versus standard diesel and gas trucks.
