There is absolutely no reason for diesel to be higher than gasoline. I did 5 years working at a plant in Ft. McMurray Alberta Canada that mined oil sands and produced what they called syncrude. They took the oil sands, washed the oil out with warm water and caustic and then ran it thru a fluid bed coker to drive off the hydrocarbons. They then took all the sulfur out then they distilled the diesel from it to run all their mine equipment then ran the distillate thru a hydrotreater and induced hydrogen back into it (they got the hydrogen from natural gas by catalytic reforming. Anyway after taking out some of the diesel, and putting back hydrogen they sold the oil as Syncrude sweet blend oil that was shipped to Edmonton for refining. They got $10 a barrel more for it because the sulfur was already removed. The point is, the diesel is easiest thing to remove and should not be any higher than gasoline. When I worked for KBR, we built gas to liquid plants all over the world. Many under-developed nations that have not much need for natural gas export it in liquified form but they cant sell it all as there isnt a demand for all of it BUT by chemically changing the natural gas via heat and catalyst, you can turn it into ethanol in a reformer OR turn it to a distillate similar to #2 diesel. These countries all use diesel driven cars and trucks so there is a demand for diesel. My last two jobs were building GTL plants in Nigeria and Algeria, both hot climates so no need for gas for heating and no pipelines to distribute it for cooking. They were just getting a distribution set up for propane bottles so the poor wouldnt have to cook over wood fires in Nigeria.
So point being, diesel is easy to make whether biodiesel or Gas to Liquid (GTL) or normal refinery practice and should not be higher than gasoline.
