America’s diesel supplies are running dangerously low. As of October 14, the United States had only 25.4 days left of its diesel supply, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Then, on October 21 stockpiles of diesel reached their lowest point ever for this time of year, at least ever since the EIA began tracking this kind of data back in 1982.

Western Nebraska runs on diesel. The trains that cross our state all have diesel engines, the trucks that haul our goods on I-80 all have diesel engines, military vehicles run on diesel, and much of our farm equipment runs on diesel. Diesel is preferable to gasoline because its density means that it puts out more energy per unit than gasoline.

Prices for a gallon of diesel have already begun to skyrocket. Texas has the lowest average price per gallon in the nation at $4.76. The average price per gallon in Nebraska is $5.14, but in California it is $6.39. On average, diesel fuel is $2.00 more per gallon than it was a year ago, but if this trend continues the price will go much higher.

The diesel crisis has put the United States in a vulnerable position. Earlier this month OPEC decided to cut oil production by 2 million barrels per day beginning in November despite pressure from the Biden Administration to do otherwise. OPEC’s decision prompted the Biden Administration to announce their intention to release another 15 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to alleviate the current crisis. But the Biden Administration had already released 180 million barrels. So, releasing another 15 million barrels of oil from our Strategic Oil Reserves will only further weaken us as a nation. This action will put our Strategic Oil Reserves at a 40-year low and put our country in a very vulnerable position against our enemies.

The future does not look good. President Biden has indicated that he has no intention of replacing the oil in our strategic reserves until the price falls to $70 per barrel. At the close of last week, Brent crude oil was selling at around $96 per barrel. Don’t expect the diesel crisis to be solved anytime soon either. Futures prices for ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) delivered in New York Harbor for the month of December are already trading at 61 percent higher than a year ago.

The American people will suffer from the diesel crisis, not the oil companies. Shell Oil, for example, announced last Thursday that its third quarter profit nearly broke the company’s record at $9.45 billion. Shell boosted its dividend to shareholders by 15 percent and announced plans to buy back another $4 billion worth of company stock over the next three months.

The diesel crisis means that Americans will continue to see higher prices at the store. The federal government’s preferred way of measuring inflation is through the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, which climbed 6.2 percent in September. Even if you strip out food and fuel, which can be volatile, prices still climbed by 5.1 percent over the past year. Because the Fed’s target for inflation is set at 2 percent, we are now running 4.2 percent higher than where we need to be. When added into the equation, the diesel crisis becomes a ticking timebomb for out-of-control inflation down the road.

This economy could soon be worse than the 1970’s. If there is a difference between the oil embargo of the 1970’s and the current diesel crisis in America, it is that we were busy stocking our Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the 1970’s. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was created in 1975 in order to protect the United States against another oil embargo, but now that our supplies are dwindling, OPEC is cutting oil production, and the Biden Administration is not replenishing our oil supply, our situation could soon be worse than it was in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Elections have consequences.