Diesel prices are through the roof, and the companies refining the fuel are posting record profits while paying out billions to shareholders, according to a breakdown from FreightWaves host Michael Vincent that is circulating widely online. "Over the last year, Marathon Petroleum, $12.6 billion in profits, net profits, not gross. Phillips 66, same deal. And they gave out $6.3 billion in dividends and buybacks in Q2 alone," Vincent said in the segment. "That's double the return from the previous year, yet you're paying $5 a freaking gallon at the pump."
The @FreightWaves account carried the segment with a blunt framing: "While everyday drivers and truckers get squeezed at the pump, major refiners are handing out $6.3 billion in quarterly stock buybacks and dividends." The post tagged the outlet's What The Truck?!? program, where Vincent walked through what he described as the gap between diesel prices and oil industry net profits.
Vincent rejected the standard explanation that supply and demand are driving the spike. "Oh, my God, there's a shortage and there's supply and demand. BS, it is not supply and demand," he said. He pointed instead to a dynamic where market participants expect prices to keep climbing. "Why? Because somebody says, hey, you know what? Maybe instead of draining our oil reserves and our diesel reserves by exporting, we just keep it for ourselves and drop the price and it doesn't work. Everything else goes up. Why? Because people think they're going to make money off of the price going up, period, the end."
The pain at the pump is not confined to the highway. Reporting from other outlets notes that truck drivers are feeling the financial pinch of record-high diesel prices, and consumers will likely continue to absorb higher prices for groceries and other goods as freight costs get passed along. According to RIA, there has been no relief at the pump despite crude prices falling, because of soaring gasoline margins and high refinery utilization. States are responding on their own: several are cutting or considering fuel tax relief, with advocates noting that every cent matters when a truck burns through fuel.
President Trump has floated restricting diesel exports as a way to keep more supply at home. That idea is generating resistance from an unusual coalition. The @BulwarkOnline account noted that "neither industry folks nor Republican lawmakers like Trump's diesel ban gimmick. It's hard to get all of those people aligned against an idea from Donald Trump." The post credited Joe Perticone. A taxpayer advocate quoted in other coverage warned the export ban could backfire rather than lower prices. Overseas, a European spokesperson called Trump's attempt to "help" the United States potentially severely expensive for the EU, according to Dagens.com, as Europe sounds the alarm over the prospect of restrictions on US diesel exports.
Meanwhile, the political fallout is landing on Capitol Hill. The @kenmartin73 account called out a dozen Senate Republicans up for reelection this November who, it said, "just voted to continue the Iran war" as gas and diesel prices soar. "In 39 days, we will vote them out," the post said. The post did not name the senators individually, but the account's audience is being asked to hold them accountable at the ballot box.
A separate line of attack is unfolding over health care. The @GuntherEagleman account revisited the Affordable Care Act, writing: "Democrats were so damn proud of Obamacare. Now we're finding out there were massive fraud problems tied to it, along with more than $21 billion in subsidies that investigators couldn't verify were properly reconciled. Am I surprised? Not one bit." The post did not identify which investigators or which report it was referring to, and Next News Network could not independently verify the claim about the $21 billion in subsidies.
The account's post was cut off mid-sentence, ending with "They were real proud of" — an incomplete thought that leaves the rest of the argument to the reader. What is clear is the pattern: the same audience being squeezed at the pump is being told to remember who voted for war, who defended the health law, and who is cashing in while they pay $5 a gallon.
Next News Network could not independently verify the claims about refinery profits, the diesel export ban's effects, the Iran war vote or the Obamacare subsidy figures. The posts cited here are social media statements and commentary, not independently confirmed reporting, and readers should treat them as what is being alleged by the accounts carrying them. Vincent's segment, for example, is a host's on-camera argument, not audited financial documentation. The @GuntherEagleman post is a social media claim, not a government report. The @kenmartin73 post is an accusation about a Senate vote, not a published roll call. And the @FreightWaves post is a promotional clip for its own program.
Our Take
The American trucker is getting crushed, and the people doing the crushing are not hiding it. Marathon Petroleum posts $12.6 billion in net profits. Phillips 66 posts the same kind of number. And in one quarter, they hand $6.3 billion back to shareholders in dividends and buybacks — double the prior year — while the guy hauling produce to your grocery store pays $5 a gallon and passes the cost to you. Then when President Trump proposes keeping American diesel at home instead of exporting it, the industry and its allies in Congress suddenly discover the virtues of the free market. Funny how that works. And while the pump eats working families alive, a dozen Senate Republicans up for reelection this November voted to keep the Iran war going. They will tell you they had no choice. They will tell you it is complicated. The voters have a simpler answer in 39 days. On health care, the pattern is the same: a law Democrats were proud of, billions in subsidies investigators cannot reconcile, and not one ounce of accountability from the people who promised it would work. The lesson here is not that government is broken. The lesson is that the people running it are not on your side, and the only thing that changes their behavior is the ballot box.
