The national average price of diesel has risen 3 cents in the past week and now stands at $5.55 per gallon, according to GasBuddy.
GasBuddy stated that the cost of regular unleaded gas is up for the fourth straight week, rising 15.3 cents from a week ago to $4.46 per gallon on May 16. GasBuddy’s data is acquired from 11 million individual price reports covering more than150,000 gas stations across the country. The national average is up 39.1 cents from a month ago and is $1.43 per gallon higher than a year ago.
AAA reports that California has the highest diesel fuel prices in the country at $6.560 per gallon, an increase of 22 centers over the week of May 9-15. Wisconsin had the lowest average diesel prices at $5.121, an increase of9.7 cents over the previous week’s price of $5.024 per gallon.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), however, shows a slight decrease in prices of on-highway diesel in the U.S. The EIA reports that the average cost of a gallon of diesel fuel in the U.S. is $5.613 per gallon, a decrease of 1/10 of a cent from last week’s price of $5.623 per gallon.
Truckers in Canada are also feeling the pinch of high fuel prices at $2.29 Canadian dollars per liter, which translates to $6.76 per gallon in U.S. dollars. The most recent prices from Mexico show the average diesel prices there to be $4.346 per gallon in U.S. dollars.
“Those filling their tanks last week saw another jolt at the pump, as both gasoline and diesel prices continued their multi-week rally,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “New records continued to be set on a near-daily basis as the national average edges even closer to $4.50 per gallon. Prices later this week could be closer to $5 per gallon than $4, as demand continues to edge higher and inventories of both gasoline and diesel continue to decline, temperatures warm and motorists get back outside and we near the Memorial Day weekend, the start of the summer driving season. While the increases may start to slow in the days ahead as pump prices catch up to oil, there isn’t much reason to be optimistic that we’ll see a plunge any time soon.”
Joseph Price has been a journalist for almost two decades. He began in community media in 2005 and has since worked at media outlets in Virginia and Arkansas. He is also a commercial drone pilot and video editor. He hosts a weekly community radio show focused on goth, metal and industrial music that airs Wednesday evenings at 6 p.m. at www.kuhsradio.org.
