National Average Diesel Price Rises 0.4 Cent to $1.744

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he U.S. Department of Energy said Monday the national average retail price for diesel fuel rose 0.4 cent to $1.744 per gallon.

Diesel increased a total of 4.4 cents over the past three weeks and was 30.5 cents higher than a year earlier.

The most recent price was only 2.7 cents below 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 more than 600 million gallons of diesel fuel each week, meaning the 0.4-cent jump would cost the industry more than $2.4 million in additional diesel fuel costs.

DOE also said Monday the average retail price for regular gasoline rose 1.1 cents to $1.928 per gallon.

The rise followed a 2.2-cent increase the previous week, which had been the first increase in seven weeks. Trucking uses an estimated 269 million gallons of gasoline a week.

The price of diesel rose everywhere except for DOE's West Coast grouping of states, where it fell 0.7 cent to $2.033. The West Coast's largest state of California saw diesel fall 1.7 cents to $2.096, still the highest in the country, DOE said.

And despite an increase of 0.3 cent, the Gulf Coast's price of $1.797 was the lowest in the nation, DOE said.

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

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