Average Diesel Price Falls 0.2 Cent to $1.761
he average retail price of diesel fuel in the United States declined 0.2 cent to $1.761 per gallon, the Department of Energy reported Monday.
The drop in the price of commercial trucking's main fuel followed an increase of 1.8 cents the week before. Despite the decline, diesel is 32.7 cents higher than a year earlier, and only 1 cent from its record high of $1.771 set on March 10, 2003, just prior to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
The trucking industry burns an estimated 576 million gallons of diesel fuel each weeks.
Also Monday, the price of crude oil for July delivery rose $1.79, or 4.5%, to $41.72 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest close since futures began trading in 1983, Bloomberg reported. Prices were up 43% from a year earlier.
The national decrease in the average price of diesel was fueled by a 5.2-cent decrease along DOE's West Coast grouping of states. DOE said the price in the state of California declined 7.4 cents to $2.266, but it is still the highest in the nation.
Although the average price dipped 0.1 cent in the Midwest, it continued to rise in the East Coast, Gulf Coat and Rocky Mountain regions, DOE said.
Each week, DOE surveys 350 diesel-filling stations to compile a national snapshot price of diesel.
