Diesel's 0.2-Cent Uptick Reaches Record $2.59 a Gallon
he U.S. retail diesel average price rose 0.2 cent to $2.59 a gallon, a new record, the Department of Energy said Monday.
The average price of unleaded regular gasoline fell by the same amount, dipping 0.2 cent from a record last week to $2.61 a gallon, DOE said following its weekly survey of filling stations.
Both fuels, coming off records last week, saw huge spikes two weeks ago, when diesel rose 16 cents to $2.567 and gasoline jumped 18.2 cents to $2.55, which were then records.
Compared with last year, the price increase translates to about $478 million in expenses to the trucking industry for the week at a burn rate of 665 million gallons per week.
Regional diesel average prices rose in two and fell in two of the five national regions surveyed, while holding steady in the East Coast region at $2.564 a gallon, DOE reported.
Diesel’s price fell in the Midwest by 0.8 cent to $2.532, while it dropped 0.4 cent in the Gulf Coast states, to $2.508 a gallon.
The Rocky Mountain region’s price rose 4.7 cents to $2.726, while the West Coast regional average saw a 2.3-cent uptick, DOE said.
California, which DOE breaks out separately from the regional prices, saw its average price rise 0.8 cent to $3.045, the highest price recorded nationally.
Each week DOE surveys 350 filling stations to compile a national snapshot retail price.
