US diesel hits $5.85 a gallon as Energy Secretary Wright blames Ukraine's refinery strikes and Biden-era plant closures
The national retail average for diesel hit $5.85 a gallon on September 4. For anyone hauling freight, that price lands on the cost of every loaded mile.
The $5.85 print
Most freight contracts carry a fuel surcharge that floats off the national diesel average, so when the average climbs the surcharge billed to the shipper climbs with it. The problem for carriers is timing. Surcharge tables reset on a lag, usually about a week behind the pump, and a fleet that fuels every day covers the gap out of its own pocket until the peg catches up.
Owner-operators and small fleets feel that gap hardest. They buy fuel at today's price and collect the surcharge set off an earlier, lower average. At $5.85, a truck that fuels every day is a real cash-flow drag before the reimbursement lands.
Wright's explanation
Energy Secretary Chris Wright put the blame in two places. Ukraine, for the strikes taking Russian refineries offline, and the Biden administration, for refinery closures in the United States. His argument is about refining capacity. He says the constraint is turning crude into diesel, not the physical supply of crude, a point he's made before.
You can take or leave the politics. The mechanic he's naming matters to haulers either way: distillate is set by refining throughput, and lost capacity anywhere in the world tightens the global diesel pool that feeds US pump prices. Fewer working refineries means diesel stays bid even if crude softens.
Peak season
The $5.85 average arrives as fall freight starts to build, and it turns quoting for peak season into a pricing problem. Carriers setting rates now have to price around it. Carriers that locked surcharge language months ago on a lower base are pricing capacity into the busiest stretch of the year with their largest variable cost running near recent highs.
Shippers will push back on the pass-through. Carriers with thin coverage may hold rate or walk from marginal lanes rather than run them at a loss. Fuel haulers moving the product face the same input cost on their own tractors, so the squeeze runs down the whole chain.
What to watch
A few things to track. Next week's national diesel average matters, and whether it holds above the level that reset the current surcharge tables. Continued Russian refinery outages could keep distillate tight regardless of what crude does. Spot rates into October will show whether carriers are repricing peak capacity, and contract surcharge pegs will show how quickly they close the gap with the pump.