For diesel buyers, price relief can’t come soon enough. Essential to truck fleet operations and a costly drain on business profitability, the distillate fuel oil was selling for a historic high of $5.75 a gallon this past summer, more than double the $2.40 level of two years earlier.

Prices have since moderated, declining to $5.21 by the fall of 2022. And more relief is on the way. The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects a price dip to $4.41 by the Fall of 2023.
One reason for the price moderation is a decline in the panic-buying that occurred in the initial ...