The U.S. national average price of diesel topped $6 a gallon in September for the first time ever, as fuel supply disruptions pushed up transportation costs in the country.
I don’t know how this can possibly work in practice.
One, this may relieve the federal diesel tax by “allowing” red fuel but will not exempt state and local taxes that he has no authority to affect, meaning it may still be illegal at the state level to run red fuel.
Two, the red fuel dye used to identify untaxed/offroad fuel is aggressive and can be detected at extremely low concentrations. If dyed fuel has ever been in a tank it’s detectable for months if not years afterwards (depending on how much it gets refilled) and even then, sometimes they can swab the fuel cap for residue and detect it indefinitely. If a state trooper decides to have a tank dip done to inspect your fuel after this tax break stuff you are capital-F Fucked.
Not entirely; off road diesel is usually the exact same distillate as on road diesel but dyed for tax purposes. AKA the distributors quite literally pull the diesel from the exact same bulk tank but then dye it for delivery. Both onroad and offroad are a ultra low sulfur refined base oil with motor lubricity and cleaning additives.
Actual heating oil is a similar distillate but without all the motor fuel additives and (i think) looser sulfur restrictions. It usually comes from a different supply chain than offroad diesel, except in more rural areas where it may be regular dyed diesel for supply chain reasons.
Completely agree, but alternatively: is there enough red stuff and red pumps to meet demand even if it wasn’t a stupid idea for the reasons you gave? I doubt business owners are going to taint their existing tanks for the reasons you gave, and there’s not enough of a guarantee this scheme will be around long enough to build new infrastructure for it, and the massive fueling stations on the interstates damn sure don’t have red tanks/pumps ready to go.
Does this even put a dog in the fight for the businesses who add the dye, or who sell the red diesel? If market manipulation like this were a goal, why not just put a tax holiday on all diesel?
Edited to remove idea someone else already posted.
In farm counties sure, there’s probably double the amount of offroad diesel storage than there is onroad, they’d be fine. everywhere else though good luck lol.
Two, the red fuel dye used in untaxed/offroad is aggressive and can be detected at extremely low concentrations, if dyed fuel has ever been in a tank it’s detectable for months if not years afterwards (depending on how much it gets refilled).
In other words, it fucks up the ability to tax diesel even long after the crisis is (theoretically/optimistically on Trump’s part) over. Considering that they could have just suspended the tax on non-dyed diesel and directed refineries to stop putting the dye in temporarily, but didn’t, one wonders if that was the real goal.
Absolutely fucks up the tax system. It would be a disaster for commercial trucking and I am betting you will not see widespread use of the untaxed fuel even if “allowed” as no operator wants to get on the wrong side of DOT after this is said and done.
This of course does not apply to light duty trucks and diesel cars where rednecks run red fuel in them almost all the time.
Hanlon’s razor has been getting an exceptional workout these days. It could just be that Trump is monumentally stupid and didn’t think about this at all.
Trump is monumentally stupid, but that doesn’t mean his Wormtongue-esque advisors are. Trump probably didn’t know red-dyed diesel existed before this; he definitely didn’t come up with the idea to let truckers use it himself.
During his first term I would consider this to be a more likely explanation, but second-term Trump has been doing a pretty good job of purging anyone with actual competence. He wasn’t happy with how they kept telling him what to do last time around.
We don’t tax fuel enough to maintain the roads as is. The states that are removing the gas tax going to see really terrible roads in the coming years because the funding mechanism went away. It also means we might have to shift to registration fees as the primary mechanism to fund roads, which we were already considering for electric cars but then we’re going down this road you might have to make it Universal to all vehicles, preferably increasing with vehicle weights
The states that are removing the gas tax going to see really terrible roads in the coming years because the funding mechanism went away.
Maybe, but more likely they’re just going to use more money from the general fund like they already do. Only 26% of the road infrastructure budget came from gas taxes to begin with. So yes, the funding would drop if they don’t make up the shortfall with other funds, but not as much as you think.
I don’t know how this can possibly work in practice.
One, this may relieve the federal diesel tax by “allowing” red fuel but will not exempt state and local taxes that he has no authority to affect, meaning it may still be illegal at the state level to run red fuel.
Two, the red fuel dye used to identify untaxed/offroad fuel is aggressive and can be detected at extremely low concentrations. If dyed fuel has ever been in a tank it’s detectable for months if not years afterwards (depending on how much it gets refilled) and even then, sometimes they can swab the fuel cap for residue and detect it indefinitely. If a state trooper decides to have a tank dip done to inspect your fuel after this tax break stuff you are capital-F Fucked.
Three, if demand for red fuel goes up, so does the demand for home heating oil (it’s the same thing in my neck of the woods).
I hope it’s a mild fucking winter or a lot of senior citizens are gonna freeze to death this year.
Not entirely; off road diesel is usually the exact same distillate as on road diesel but dyed for tax purposes. AKA the distributors quite literally pull the diesel from the exact same bulk tank but then dye it for delivery. Both onroad and offroad are a ultra low sulfur refined base oil with motor lubricity and cleaning additives. Actual heating oil is a similar distillate but without all the motor fuel additives and (i think) looser sulfur restrictions. It usually comes from a different supply chain than offroad diesel, except in more rural areas where it may be regular dyed diesel for supply chain reasons.
Completely agree, but alternatively: is there enough red stuff and red pumps to meet demand even if it wasn’t a stupid idea for the reasons you gave? I doubt business owners are going to taint their existing tanks for the reasons you gave, and there’s not enough of a guarantee this scheme will be around long enough to build new infrastructure for it, and the massive fueling stations on the interstates damn sure don’t have red tanks/pumps ready to go.
Does this even put a dog in the fight for the businesses who add the dye, or who sell the red diesel?
If market manipulation like this were a goal, why not just put a tax holiday on all diesel?Edited to remove idea someone else already posted.
In farm counties sure, there’s probably double the amount of offroad diesel storage than there is onroad, they’d be fine. everywhere else though good luck lol.
In other words, it fucks up the ability to tax diesel even long after the crisis is (theoretically/optimistically on Trump’s part) over. Considering that they could have just suspended the tax on non-dyed diesel and directed refineries to stop putting the dye in temporarily, but didn’t, one wonders if that was the real goal.
Absolutely fucks up the tax system. It would be a disaster for commercial trucking and I am betting you will not see widespread use of the untaxed fuel even if “allowed” as no operator wants to get on the wrong side of DOT after this is said and done.
This of course does not apply to light duty trucks and diesel cars where rednecks run red fuel in them almost all the time.
Hanlon’s razor has been getting an exceptional workout these days. It could just be that Trump is monumentally stupid and didn’t think about this at all.
Trump is monumentally stupid, but that doesn’t mean his Wormtongue-esque advisors are. Trump probably didn’t know red-dyed diesel existed before this; he definitely didn’t come up with the idea to let truckers use it himself.
During his first term I would consider this to be a more likely explanation, but second-term Trump has been doing a pretty good job of purging anyone with actual competence. He wasn’t happy with how they kept telling him what to do last time around.
Whether he is too dumb to realize it or not, another important point is that he probably does not care about future problems.
Why would he, he’s never been held accountable for anything before.
We don’t tax fuel enough to maintain the roads as is. The states that are removing the gas tax going to see really terrible roads in the coming years because the funding mechanism went away. It also means we might have to shift to registration fees as the primary mechanism to fund roads, which we were already considering for electric cars but then we’re going down this road you might have to make it Universal to all vehicles, preferably increasing with vehicle weights
Maybe, but more likely they’re just going to use more money from the general fund like they already do. Only 26% of the road infrastructure budget came from gas taxes to begin with. So yes, the funding would drop if they don’t make up the shortfall with other funds, but not as much as you think.
Hey, maga republicans aren’t known for “law and order” as much as they wanted the world to think… this much is very clear.
They don’t give a fuck, if daddy pedo said they could, they will.