Photo: 209375121 | Victoria Ditkovsky | Dreamstime
The price of diesel leveled its steep incline this week, increasing just 1.8 cents to $5.718 per gallon nationwide, according to the latest government data for the week of June 13.
Last week, for the week of June 6, prices shot up 16.4 cents to $5.703 per gallon after three weeks of slight declines, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Nevertheless, this week’s price of $5.718 sets yet another record for trucking's main fuel.
But EIA adopted new statistical methodologies this week, making it difficult to directly compare the week of June 13 to the prior week. The agency's changes include updated ways of sampling and new estimation methodologies. For example, the previous methodologies listed the national average at $5.703 per gallon for the week of June 6, but the new methodology lists it at $5.649, or 5.4 cents less.
An example of how EIA's new methodologies affect price measuring.
However, motor club AAA, which updates its prices daily compared to the weekly EIA data, also saw trucking's main fuel surge. On June 13, AAA listed diesel at $5.770 as opposed to $5.645 on June 6, a 12.5-cent increase. The AAA measure of June 12 saw another diesel record broken at $5.771, a fraction of a cent higher than June 13. That record is an increase of 12.6 cents from a week ago, 21.1 cents from a month ago, and $2.557 more than a year ago.
According to EIA’s data, diesel prices dropped slightly in the most expensive areas of the country, the East and West coasts: 7 cents and 1.8 cents, respectively. The East Coast’s Lower Atlantic subregion, the area of the East Coast where diesel is cheapest, did see a 2.9-cent increase.
Gasoline also reached a record high. AAA measured the national average for a gallon of gas at $5.014 on June 13, or 14.9 cents more than on June 6. EIA saw the weekly price go up 13 cents, from $4.876 to $5.006 per gallon.
The price of crude oil, which varies frequently throughout any given day, peaked at $121.63 per barrel on June 13 and at $119.62 on June 7 for West Texas Intermediate, a $2.01 increase. But this was less than the previous week’s increase of $3.99 per barrel.
