Diesel Price Rises 0.9 Cent to $1.628

he Department of Energy said Monday the average price of retail diesel fuel rose 0.9 cent to $1.628, while the price of regular gasoline inched closer to an all-time record.

The price of diesel, commercial trucking's dominant fuel, has now increased 6 cents over the past four weeks. It remained at the highest level since $1.662 on March 24, 2003, DOE said.

However, it is 14.3 cents below the same week a year earlier, when it set its all-time record high of $1.771 as the U.S. prepared to invade Iraq.

Gasoline has increased nine of the past 10 weeks as refiners and fuel distributors passed along higher crude-oil costs, DOE said.

It is the highest price since $1.746 on Sept. 1, and is just below the record of $1.747 set Aug. 25.

The price of diesel decline 0.6 cent along the West Coast grouping of states to $1.845, but continued rising throughout the rest of the nation, according to DOE regional figures.

The largest spike in diesel was 1.7 cents in the Gulf Coast, but its price remained the cheapest in the nation at $1.566.

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