World · Economy 51
Rising gas prices have garnered a lot of attention, but diesel prices have also sharply increased in recent weeks amid mounting military tensions with Iran. The average price of a gallon of diesel fuel in the U.S. on Thursday, Sept. 17, was $6.39, according to AAA. That's up from an average diesel price of $5.97 one week ago on Sept. 10, and $3.70 one year ago on Sept. 17, 2025, the group said.
By comparison, the average price of a gallon of regular gas in the U.S. on Wednesday, Sept. 16, was $4.43. Those higher diesel costs have translated to increased grocery prices for many consumers, because shipping companies usually make deliveries to stores in diesel-powered trucks. Higher shipping costs are passed on to consumers rather than being absorbed by grocery chains.
While they're fending off complaints from voters about the higher gas and diesel prices, the Trump administration has moved to rollback stringent emission rules for trucks that trucking companies say could increase the cost of a single truck by as much as $12,000. Those costs could presumably be passed onto to consumers too. Consumer advocates say customers were already being squeezed by higher prices caused by other factors like inflation before diesel prices started spiking this year.
“Since early 2021, American consumers have seen their family budgets getting squeezed more and more," David Holt, president of the Houston, Texas-based Consumer Energy Alliance , which lobbies for energy policies that benefit consumers, said in a statement. "On top of the direct impact of excessively high gasoline and diesel prices, family budgets are crushed by the inflationary impact those fuel prices have on essential, everyday commodities like eggs, bread, milk, and clothing – all of which require diesel fuel to get to our markets or homes," Holt continued. "Simply put, when gasoline and diesel costs go up, the cost of everything goes up." With that in mind, the USA TODAY Cars team took a look at why increased diesel prices have so much impact on grocery price and whether the pending regulations would make your grocery bills even worse.
Why do diesel prices impact grocery costs so much? According to American Trucking Associations , which lobbies in Washington for major trucking companies, nearly 73% of the nation's cargo freight was moved by diesel trucks in 2024, which is the most recent data the group has made publicly available. That translated to 1.27 billion tons of freight that was transported by trucks that now cost shipping companies a lot more to fill up.
Big rigs have tanks that can range in capacity from 120 to 150 gallons, according to the FreightWaves.com website. Such trucks average about 6 miles per gallon, according to the site. According to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, grocery prices are forecasted to have increased 2.5 percent in August 2026. It's also costing Americans a lot more to eat out when they choose to go to a restaurant instead of cooking at home. Restaurant and takeout prices are forecast to increase 3.6 percent according to the agency.
CEA Midwest Director Chis Ventura said Americans are feeling the pinch no matter how they choose to feed themselves. “Americans always notice when food and gas prices go up because they can see the money leaving their wallets at the pump, or know that they paid less last month for eggs at the cash register,” Ventura said in a statement. “There is a direct and immediate correlation between the two – higher energy prices mean higher farming, ranching and transportation costs that cause the price of food and groceries prices to rise, taking more money out of family pockets.
It is an inescapable, iron law of consumer prices that policymakers ignore at their own – and American families’ – peril.” What's the status of the truck emission regulations? Under former President Joe Biden , the EPA imposed stringent rules for heavy duty trucks that would require trucking companies to add expensive emission control devices beginning as soon as next year. Critics complained the new rules could at between $8,000 and $12,000 to the cost of a truck, on top of the record high diesel prices they are current facing.
The Trump administration has moved to weaken the truck emission rules by delaying some of the most stringent requirements until 2030 . Environmentalists have argued that Trump's move to weaken the truck emission standards will make air quality worse and not produce savings for consumers with diesel prices remaining over $6 per gallon. "Clean truck standards save lives," Katherine García, director of Sierra Club's Clean Transportation for All campaign, said in a statement.
"Weakening them would mean more toxic pollution in the air and more families paying the price with their health." Garcia added: "The technology to meet these standards and make trucks cleaner already exists, manufacturers have said they're ready, and Americans deserve cleaner air, not another giveaway to polluters." Keith Laing is an automotive reporter on the National Trending Desk at USA TODAY. Contact Keith at klaing@usatodayco.com . SMS Facebook Twitter Email
Source: USA Today
