Click here to write a Letter to the Editor.The average national price of retail diesel fuel jumped 4.1 cents to $2.476 a gallon, the Department of Energy said Monday.
Regular gasoline, meanwhile, increased 5 cents to $2.241 a gallon, that fuel's second straight increase following four downturns and an unchanged reading.The second diesel increase in two weeks followed seven weeks of declines in which trucking’s primary fuel had fallen 20.8 cents. Last week, diesel rose 2.2 cents.Crude oil prices rose almost $8 over the past three weeks, closing at $59.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday, Bloomberg reported. Prices fell back more than $2 Monday, though, to close at $57.81 after Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest producer, told refiners to expect more shipments next month, Bloomberg said.For a second straight week, diesel prices rose in every region except the Rocky Mountains, in which it dipped 0.6 cent to $2.394, following a 3.3-cent decline last week.The price jumped 8 cents in California to $2.905 a gallon, following last week’s 6.4-cent increase. DOE breaks out California separately from the West Coast region, though that state's price is included in the West Coast tally.Each week the department surveys 350 filling stations nationwide to get a national snapshot average price.