Retail Diesel Average Price Drops 3.8 Cents to $2.189

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he average price of retail diesel fuel fell for a third straight week, dropping 3.8 cents to $2.189 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported Monday.

The drop was the third straight decline and fourth in five weeks, DOE’s figures showed. Diesel prices have fallen more than 12 cents over the past five weeks.

Meanwhile the average price of regular gasoline dropped 2.3 cents to $2.163 a gallon, DOE said. It was the fourth consecutive drop following record high prices in late March and early April, when gasoline peaked at $2.28 on April 11.

The declines followed four consecutive all-time record highs from late March into early April that peaked at an all-time record of $2.316 on April 11.

Diesel’s drops have paralleled crude oil declines over the past few weeks.

Benchmark light sweet crude oil futures remained below $49 a barrel Monday, closing at $48.61 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 9 cents from Friday’s closing price, Bloomberg reported.

Despite the drops, diesel was 42.6 cents higher than the same time last year, which would mean an extra $85.20 this year for a trucker pumping 200 gallons into a big rig.

For the third straight week, DOE reported diesel prices fell in every geographic region.

The West Coast and California saw the biggest declines, dropping a whopping 8.4 and 8.6 cents, respectively, DOE’s figures showed.

But their prices remained the nation’s highest, at $2.397 for the West Coast and $2.432 in California.

The Midwest region had the lowest reported price, at $2.129 a gallon, DOE said.

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