One-Cent Increase Leaves Diesel Price at Highest Level Since May 24

he Department of Energy said Monday the national average retail price for diesel fuel increased 1 cent to $1.754 per gallon.

Diesel, the main fuel of the trucking industry, has risen 5.4 cents over the past four weeks, and was at its highest level since $1.761 on May 24.

The price was 31.6 cents higher than a year earlier and only 1.7 cents from the 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.

The decrease followed a 1.1-cent increase the previous week. Trucking uses an estimated 269 million gallons of gasoline a week.

DOE said diesel declined 0.2 cent along its West Coast grouping of states to $2.031, despite an increase of 1.1 cents in its largest state of California to $210.7, the most expensive price in the nation.

The steepest rise of 1.7 cents was reported in DOE's Gulf Coast region. Diesel in the Gulf Coast was $1.691, the cheapest in the nation, DOE said.

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

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