National Diesel Price Holds Steady

The price of diesel fuel in New England dropped by more than 19 cents a gallon for the second week in a row, helping to hold the national average price steady at $1.456 a gallon despite increases in the Midwest and West.

	Fuel Prices
	Week of Feb. 21:
	source	price		change
	DOE	145.6		0
	Comdata*	143.4		-2.6
	OPIS self-serve*	144.4		-2.6
	OPIS wholesale*	88.0		-3.3
	*Comdata and OPIS figures are for the week of Feb. 12. Click here for more fuel prices.
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Since peaking at $2.122 a gallon on Feb. 7, the average cost of diesel in New England has steadily declined, as reported by the federal Energy Information Administration. The regional cost fell to $1.739 on Feb. 21, down from $1.93 a week earlier. But the average still remains the highest among the nine subregions of the Petroleum Administration Defense Districts.

The other eastern regions that recorded drops from the previous week were the East Coast — from $1.567 to $1.52 — and the Central Atlantic — from $1.819 to $1.653.

It was the second week in a row that those three regions, which experienced the most unrest among truckers, had lower averages. The six other reporting districts were less fortunate as their prices rose by as much as 2.7 cents a gallon, but only California’s cost was above $1.50.

For the full story, see the Feb. 28 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.