America’s diesel shortage will exact a heavy toll

What do Joe Biden and Harry S. Truman have in common? Both presidents ran the US when American stockpiles of distillate fuel were exceptiona [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( [$200 Diesel Puts Biden in an Ugly Corner]( — Javier Blas What do Joe Biden and Harry S. Truman have in common? Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg Both presidents ran the US when American stockpiles of distillate fuel were exceptionally low. Currently, the US has just 106 million barrels of diesel and heating oil in commercial stocks; the last time inventories were that low in mid-October was in 1951, when Truman was in the White House. Typically, inventories should be 30% higher this time of the year. Such low levels are alarming because diesel is the workhorse of the global economy. It powers trucks and vans, excavators, freight trains and ships. A shortage would mean higher costs for everything from trucking to farming to construction. The diesel crisis leaves the Biden administration facing very difficult choices. Read the [whole thing](. [Supreme Court Will End the Era of College Diversity]( — Noah Feldman [New Covid Variants Have Arrived. How Worried Should You Be?]( — Lisa Jarvis [The Wishful Theory of ‘Strategic Russian Defeat’]( — Leonid Bershidsky [Can the US Take on China, Iran and Russia All at Once?]( — Hal Brands Truss’s Exit Leaves Tories at the Last Chance Saloon]( — Therese Raphael [Looking to Buy a House? It’s Not the Worst Time]( — Teresa Ghilarducci [What a Defiant Xi at the Party Congress Tells Us]( — Shuli Ren [If Putin Orders a Nuke, Will His Generals Obey?]( — Andreas Kluth [Moving to a Low-Tax State Can Be an Expensive Way to Save Money]( — Alexis Leondis More From Bloomberg Opinion Here’s what we were talking about this week. - [Why Is the Labor Market Acting so Weirdly?]( with Kyla Scanlon - [What's Next for the UK?]( with Bobby Ghosh and Adrian Wooldridge - [Is Inflation Freezing the Economy?]( with Jonathan Levin, Scott Brave and Andrea Felsted - [The Future of Flying Cars]( with Parmy Olson and Omer Bar-Yohay This is the Weekend Edition of Bloomberg Opinion Today, a roundup of the most popular stories Bloomberg Opinion published this week based on web readership. Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Opinion Today newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( | [Ad Choices]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022