By: Keith Kappes
Columnist
Carter County Times
Over the course of one year and one unfinished, undeclared war in the Middle East, I was almost convinced that the current leadership in Washington had worked a miracle with motor vehicles and their fuel.
I drive a 2018 model compact SUV manufactured by General Motors and equipped with a 15-gallon gasoline tank. One year ago, my car’s tank could be filled with 87 octane gas for $48.75.
Six months later, without any change in the tank’s capacity, it could hold $56.25 worth of gasoline. Add another six months and the little-car-that-could was filled to the brim with gas valued at $63.75.
I excitedly shared my startling statistics with some colleagues but they quickly discredited my research on the basis that the problem had nothing to do with changing the fuel tank capacity but with the per-gallon price of gasoline at the pump.
A year ago, that “regular” gas cost $3.25 per gallon at the pump. Six months later it was $3.75 and last week it was $4.25. That represents a 24 percent increase which obviously exceeds the 3.4 percent official rate of inflation.
As I pondered the rising cost of gasoline, I noticed at an I-75 truck stop two nights ago that diesel fuel was selling at $6.64 per gallon and there seemed to be more big rigs parked than usual.
A close relative buys thousands of gallons of diesel fuel each month for his trucks and earthmoving equipment in the construction business. He says the unanticipated fuel cost increase is rapidly reducing his profit margin on projects won by bidding many months, even years ago.
A surprising impact story recently developed right here in Kentucky when several school districts said they wouldn’t have enough money to cover the cost of diesel fuel for their buses.
The funding shortfall is a result of the schools getting $93 million less in state appropriations to pay transportation costs than requested.
But the state finished the last fiscal year with a budget surplus of only $418 million!!!
Contact Keith at keithkappes@gmail.com.
