What the record-high cost of diesel means for you

Diesel prices hit an all-time high of $5.94 a gallon nationally on Friday, according to AAA, up $2.27 since late February when the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran that has largely closed the Strait of Hormuz. California diesel now runs $7.87 a gallon, and a Brown University tracker estimates the run-up has cost U.S. consumers $46 billion, roughly $350 per household.

Analysts cited by the Associated Press and Reuters point to a squeeze from multiple directions: Ukraine's strikes on Russian refineries have pulled Russian supply off the global market, U.S. refineries are already running at capacity, and domestic diesel inventories are at their lowest level since 1982. Farmers and truckers typically burn more diesel in autumn, raising the stakes heading into a season with record-low early-September stockpiles.

Millions of households that heat with oil, essentially diesel, face what experts describe as unprecedented winter bills, arriving as the Trump administration has threatened to eliminate the low-income heating assistance program that helps cover them. Analysts told Axios the timing, just before the midterms, could make fuel costs a bigger factor at the ballot box than usual.

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