What Is Driving Diesel Prices Up? Energy Chaos Caused by Two Wars.

President Trump recently blamed surging diesel prices on Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries.But energy experts say that while he is partly right, the war in Iran has been a more important driver of energy prices.The average price of a gallon of diesel in the United States has been setting records in recent days, topping $6 a gallon on Friday and climbing to $6.23 by Monday morning, up about 65 percent since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb.

28.The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline, $4.31 on Monday, has also risen sharply since the start of the Iran war, by about 45 percent.And the global price of oil, the raw material for diesel, gasoline and other fuels, is up roughly 50 percent.“We have basically two wars involving two of the world’s largest energy producers,” said Helima Croft, an energy analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

“The Middle East is the most prolific energy production zone, and then you add Russia into this.”Mr.Trump and his aides have recently sought to focus attention on Ukraine’s strikes on refineries in Russia, and away from the war in Iran.

And, indeed, the Ukrainian strikes, which are meant to deprive Russia of revenue it needs to finance its war, have had an impact by forcing the Kremlin to suspend exports of diesel and other fuels to the rest of the world.“The World’s Diesel price rise is mostly caused by the Russia/Ukraine War, not Iran,” the president wrote on his social media site on Monday.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe....