Retail Diesel Price Climbs 4.2 Cents to $2.276

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he average retail price of diesel fuel rose 4.2 cents to $2.276 a gallon, the Department of Energy reported Monday.

Following last week’s 7.4-cent jump, the increase boosted the price of trucking’s main fuel by 11.6 cents over the past two weeks, DOE’s figures showed.

The $2.276 diesel price is just 4 cents below the all-time record of $2.316 a gallon set April 11 and is the highest weekly average since April 25, when it was $2.289.

Meanwhile the price of self-serve regular gasoline rose 1.4 cents to $2.13 a gallon, DOE said, marking the 42nd consecutive week in which diesel prices have topped gasoline.

That stretched a record that topped a previous 38-week streak, set from August 1996 to May 1997.

Diesel is 56.5 cents over the same time last year, meaning the industry was spending about $375 million more than the same week last year. Trucking burns an estimated 665 million gallons of diesel every week.

Following increases last week, crude oil prices surged more than $2 a barrel Monday, closing at $55.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported. The all-time record of $58.28 was set on April 4.

Diesel prices rose in all five national regions, led by 5-cent spike in the Midwest to $2.248 and a 4.2-cent jump in New England, to $2.276.

The Rocky Mountain region’s rise was the smallest, at 1.9 cents, rising to $2.21.

The West Coast remained the highest regional price, rising 2.5 cents to $2.364. The price in California, which DOE breaks out separately from its regions, rose 3.6 cents to $2.457.

OE surveys 350 diesel-filling stations every week to compile a national snapshot price.