Brenda Brenda:
Why is diesel more expensive than gas anyway?
In The Netherlands, it is cheaper. A LOT.
(However, the road tax for diesel cars is higher. Still, at the end of the day, if you drive a lot, a diesel is cheaper)
The federal tax on diesel is 6 cents per litre less than gasoline; however, each province has its own tax regime with some charging the same tax on both products (e.g. Alberta) and some charging different rates (eg greater Vancouver area 7 cents more for diesel).
On top of that you have the supply demand situation. Relatively the demand for middle distillates (diesel) is higher in winter and lower in summer and gasoline is the opposite. Think of two opposing sine waves with the gas peak in the summer. Now the refinery can only be tuned so far in producing more or less gas from a barrel. So when diesel demand is high there is excess gas for the demand and when the gas demand is high there is excess diesel. So to 'keep the tanks from overflowing' they raise the price on the high demand product and lower it on the low demand product.
Pretty crude explanation, but I hope I managed to get the point across.