Gasoline Price

Gasoline prices rose in most of the U.S. during the last week and are higher than they were a year earlier, according to a federal survey released Tuesday. But the fuel bite out of the collective American wallet may not be any worse than it was a year earlier because consumption is down. The U.S. average price of self-serve regular gasoline Monday was $3.391 a gallon, up nearly a penny from a week earlier and 28.7 cents higher than a year earlier, the Energy Department said in a report delayed a day by the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

The average cost of gasoline in California fell 5.1 cents, to $2.034 a gallon, for the week ended Monday, marking the third straight week of declines after a price spike that hit drivers before Labor Day. The drop in California's statewide average outpaced the decrease in nationwide retail prices, which fell 2 cents to an average of $1.697 for a gallon of self-serve regular, according to figures from the federal Energy Information Administration.

U.S. refineries have contributed to gasoline price increases during the last two years by closing storage facilities, withholding supplies in some markets and undergoing mergers, a consumer group charged Monday. Gas prices are about 20 cents per gallon higher than they were in the late 1990s, costing consumers an additional $150 a year per household, according to a study by the Consumer Federation of America.

The average price of gasoline should climb back above the $1-a-gallon mark this summer, slowing the growth of driving and resulting in a drop in fuel use for the season, the Energy Department predicted today. The quarterly forecasts of energy markets and supplies by the department's Energy Information Administration also saw higher crude oil prices and fairly stable domestic crude oil production from now into next spring.

Fueled by uncertainty in the Persian Gulf, gasoline prices have hit an all-time high with the average pump price jumping nearly 3 cents a gallon in the last two weeks, a leading oil analyst said Sunday. American motorists are paying an average of $1.3835 per gallon at the pump, according to the latest Lundberg Survey of national gasoline prices, which was conducted Friday. Motorists spent an average of $1.3544 cents a gallon on Sept. 7. The previous high of just under $1.

California motorists saw the average price for self-serve regular gasoline jump 8.9 cents a gallon, the fourth weekly increase in a row, as the U.S. average gained 2.1 cents, an Energy Department report indicated Monday. Prices increased the most in California, where the average hit $2.513 a gallon, up 47.9 cents from this time last year. The U.S. average of $2.357 a gallon was 44.6 cents higher than a year earlier, according to the weekly survey of 800 filling stations. Regular gasoline rose 3.

Gasoline prices dribbled lower across most of the nation during the last week, the Energy Department said Tuesday, but fuel experts warned that costs at the pump probably would surge again in 2006 with an increase in consumption. In New York futures trading Tuesday, oil, natural gas and heating oil prices fell on expectations of warmer temperatures just two weeks after a cold snap in the Northeastern U.S. helped send natural gas to record highs.

Federal authorities will investigate the gasoline price spikes that angered motorists across the country, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham told Congress on Wednesday. Last month's run-up in pump prices "struck me as being unusually large ... and in need of greater explanation," Abraham said at a Capitol Hill hearing. Abraham had been invited to testify on last month's Northeast power blackout.

As gasoline prices continued their steady climb nationwide, a federal report Monday showed that the past week's increase was three times higher in California, where the average price per gallon of regular crossed the $2 mark for the first time since the Energy Department began tracking the data in 1995. The agency said the average self-serve pump price for regular gas in California jumped 9 cents to $2.012 for the week ended Monday.

With the end of the U.S. holiday shopping season approaching, the national average retail price for gasoline fell just below $3 a gallon for the first time in seven weeks, the government said Monday. California's average also continued to slide but remained well above the national average. The national price for regular gasoline declined 0.2 of a cent over the last week to $2.998 a gallon, the Energy Information Administration said in its weekly survey of service stations.