When gas prices spike, it's not just your commute that gets more expensive. It's your groceries. Your heating bill. Everything that moves by truck, train, or tractor costs more — and in America today, that's almost everything.

Take farming. Wisconsin farmers run on diesel — for planting, harvesting, hauling. The fertilizer they spread is made from natural gas. The propane that dries their grain comes through pipelines from hundreds of miles away. When energy prices rise, farmers get squeezed from every direction — and those costs show up at the grocery store.

But does it have to be this way? You've already seen electric cars on the road. Electric semi trucks are starting to join them. And most freight locomotives already run on electric drivetrains — the diesel engine is just a generator, which means they're surprisingly easy to convert to battery power.

Every piece of the supply chain that moves off oil is one less place where a crisis in the Middle East can reach into your wallet.

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Energy costs are embedded in everything you buy. Fuel powers the tractors that grow food, the trucks that deliver it, the trains that haul raw materials, and the heating systems that keep businesses running. When energy prices spike, costs ripple through the entire supply chain — and consumers pay more for goods that may have nothing directly to do with gasoline.

Wisconsin farming is especially energy-dependent. Farmers use diesel for equipment, fertilizer made from natural gas (via the Haber-Bosch process), and propane for grain drying. Propane supply is linked to pipeline infrastructure including Enbridge's Line 5. When energy prices rise, farmers are squeezed from multiple directions simultaneously — and those costs eventually show up at the grocery store.

The "sticky prices" problem: Energy price spikes trigger broad inflation, but when energy costs fall, consumer prices don't drop equally. Businesses raise prices to protect margins and lower them slowly, if at all. Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi noted: "We're going to be paying the price for this through much of the year." (CBS News)

Freight locomotives are already partly electric. Nearly all U.S. freight locomotives are diesel-electric — the diesel engine powers a generator, which powers electric motors on the axles. This means converting them to battery-electric is more feasible than it sounds, because the drivetrain is already electric. A Berkeley Lab study published in Nature Energy found that switching U.S. freight rail to battery-electric would save $94 billion over 20 years, using half the energy of diesel. (Nature Energy)

Companies working on this: Voltify is retrofitting diesel locomotives and began pilot programs with a Class 1 railroad in early 2026. Wabtec (FLXdrive), Progress Rail (EMD Joule), and Siemens (Charger B+AC) are also developing battery-electric freight locomotives. CSX expects 3 battery-electric units by 2027. (CNBC)

Electric semi trucks are also entering the market, including the Tesla Semi, Freightliner eCascadia, and Volvo VNR Electric. Each electrified link in the supply chain is one less point where global oil prices affect what you pay.

Related Civic Minute segments: Rockets and Feathers (CM-21), Your Gas Is One-Third Corn (CM-37), The Sun Doesn't Send a Bill (CM-30)