Diesel Price Rises 0.3 Cent; First Increase Since End of October

he Department of Energy said Monday the national average price of retail diesel fuel rose 0.3 cent to $1.987 per gallon.

This marked the first increase in diesel since a 3.2-cent jump to a record $2.212 on Oct. 25. Prior to Monday's increase, diesel had fallen a total of 22.8 cents over the past two months, falling every week except one, when it was unchanged.

Diesel was 48.5 cents higher than a year earlier, according to DOE figures. Trucking burns about 650 million gallons of diesel each week.

Trucking uses about 290 million gallons of gasoline each week. The price has eight straight weeks and nine out of the past 10 weeks.

Also Monday, the price of crude oil for February delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $2.92 a barrel, or 6.6%, to $41.26 a barrel, Bloomberg reported. It was the largest decline since Dec. 1.

Meanwhile, despite the increase in the national diesel price, it actually declined in three of the five major regions that DOE tracks. It declined 0.7 cent in both the East Coast and West Coast grouping of states, and 2.7 cents in the smaller Rocky Mountain region.

However, it rose 1.5 cents in the Midwest and 0.6 cent in the Gulf Coast.

Each week, DOE surveys 350 diesel-filling stations to compile a national snapshot price.

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