Diesel Price Rises to New Record High of $2.348

The average price of diesel fuel in the United States rose 1.2 to a new record price $2.348 a gallon, the Department of Energy said Tuesday.

The increase was the seventh in as many weeks, and marked the second straight time the price set a record, according to DOE’s Energy Information Administration.

The average price of gasoline also rose, EIA said, jumping 1.1 cents a gallon to an average of $2.226 a gallon, 5.4 cents short of the $2.28 record set April 11. The price is now 33.1 cents a gallonhigher than it was last year at this time.

Crude oil prices were forced higher on Tuesday as disruption fears due to an approaching tropical storm.

The higher prices are costing the trucking industry roughly $420 million more a week than last year, as diesel prices are 63.2 cents a gallon higher than at this point in 2004. The industry consumes about 665 million gallons of diesel fuel each week.

The price rose in all of EIA’s regions except for in the Lower Atlantic states, where the price fell just 0.3 cent a gallon. The highest price for trucking’s main fuel continued to be found in California, where a gallon of diesel cost an average of $2.554.

Each week DOE surveys 350 filling stations to compile a national snapshot retail price.