The American Trucking Assns. and ATA President and CEO Bill Graves applauded President Bush’s decision to open the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to ensure a steady supply of oil to the United States as well as help refineries badly crippled by Hurricane Katrina.

“Any steps the Bush Administration can take to ensure steady oil supplies are welcomed by the trucking industry,” Graves said. “This decision illustrates that the President is willing to take the necessary steps to ensure America’s economic well-being.”
With help from the decision to open SPR, crude oil prices on the futures market remained steady Wednesday. But ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said retail diesel and gasoline prices are expected to spike in the short term. Hurricane Katrina crippled refineries and disrupted the Colonial pipeline. Refineries in other parts of the country are unlikely to pick up the slack because they already are operating at near full capacity.
Rising fuel prices have been a significant burden on the trucking industry. The industry, which consumes 50 billion gallons of fuel each year, is on pace to spend an unprecedented $80 billion on diesel fuel this year, $18 billion more than a year earlier.
That follows a $10 billion increase in fuel costs over 2003.
This is significant because more than 500,000 motor carriers in the United States transport nearly 70% of tonnage carried by all modes of domestic freight transportation. Trucks hauled 9.8 billion tons of freight in 2004, collecting $671 billion dollars, or just under 88%, of total revenues earned by all transport modes.