# Record-Setting Diesel Prices Put Pressure On Bay Area Businesses and Consumers Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728/record-setting-diesel-prices-put-pressure-on-bay-area-businesses-and-consumers Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728/record-setting-diesel-prices-put-pressure-on-bay-area-businesses-and-consumers.md Podcast: [KQED's Forum](https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728) Published: 2026-09-28T17:57:00+00:00 Episode link: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC8483780248.mp3 Audio file: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC8483780248.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/kqed-s-forum-910728/episodes/record-setting-diesel-prices-put-pressure-on-bay-area-businesses-and-consumers Duration seconds: 3286 ## Resource Diesel prices are now well above $8 a gallon in California –  higher than they’ve ever been and 63 percent more than a year ago. While most consumers don’t purchase diesel, most of the goods we buy rely on it for transportation.  Diesel powers tractors that work farms, trucks that transport the food to a manufacturing facility and trains that distribute products across the country.  The steep rise in diesel prices is already putting pressure on businesses and the economy as a whole. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is talking about banning diesel exports as a way to increase domestic supply and lower prices. We’ll talk about why diesel prices have skyrocketed, how that will affect consumers and what could happen next. Guests: Severin Borenstein, Professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a faculty director of The Energy Institute at Haas; member, Board of Governors of the California Independent System Operator Kyle Cameron, president, Cameron and Co. Trucking, Inc. Shaun Crook, co-owner and vice president, Crook Logging Inc. – He also serves as first vice president for the California Farm Bureau Federation. John Coletta, CEO, Clover Sonoma – a maker of dairy products. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/kqed-s-forum-910728/episodes/record-setting-diesel-prices-put-pressure-on-bay-area-businesses-and-consumers/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/kqed-s-forum-910728/record-setting-diesel-prices-put-pressure-on-bay-area-businesses-and-consumers.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.