Diesel Prices Rise Again

The national average price of diesel fuel rose 4.4 cents a gallon to $1.753, the third new record in as many weeks, the Department of Energy reported Monday.

The DOE’s Energy Information Administration said that the price of diesel fuel rose at least 2.7 cents in every region of the country.

In New England, diesel prices continued their ascent toward $2 a gallon – adding 6.6 cents to reach $1.954.

The price of gasoline rose 2.8 cents to a 21-month high of $1.686, EIA reported.

Heightening tensions in the Middle East, coupled with supply concerns after an extremely rough winter in the United States and a strike in major oil-supplier Venezuela, have pushed crude oil and fuel prices much higher so far in 2003.

EIA reported that the average gallon of diesel costs 58 cents more Monday than it did a year earlier.

Fuel prices have risen so high, that American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves this week called on Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to consider immediately releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, even before a potential U.S. war with Iraq, to help figth high fuel prices(Click here for the full press release). That followed earlier ATA letters calling on President Bush to consider tapping the SPR.

Graves this week also wrote the 50 state attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission, asking that they be vigilant to combat potential diesel fuel price gouging.”

Each week, EIA surveys 350 diesel-filling stations around the country, using that information to compile a composite snapshot of fuel prices nationwide.

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