Gas Tops $2/Gallon, 2.9 Cents from Record
Date: 19-Oct-04
Country: USA
Author: Tom Doggett
The national pump price for regular unleaded gasoline rose 4.2 cents over the last week to $2.035 a gallon, up 46 cents from a year ago, according to a survey of service stations by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The latest price is 2.9 cents short of the record $2.064 reached last May 24.
The Energy Department's analytical arm also said the average price truckers pay for diesel fuel climbed 8.8 cents to a record $2.18 a gallon, the fourth consecutive week that diesel fuel set a new record high.
Rising motor fuel prices are the result of high crude oil prices, which account for about half the cost of making gasoline and diesel.
The price for U.S. crude oil hit a record $55.33 a barrel in overnight trading at the New York Mercantile Exchange, but settled daytime trading lower at $53.67 yesterday.
With the U.S. presidential election two weeks away, the campaign of Democratic challenger John Kerry seized on the latest gasoline and diesel prices to criticize President Bush for not doing enough to fight high fuel costs.
"These prices are hurting the economy, and they're squeezing working families," said Kerry spokesman Phil Singer. "This president has no ideas for dealing with this crisis and pretty soon he's going to be out of time," he added.
The Bush administration has urged Congress to allow drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to increase domestic petroleum supplies and lower imports, which the White House believes would lead to lower pump costs in the long term. But Kerry, along with moderate Republicans, has blocked that plan in the U.S. Senate.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said last week that high oil prices have already reduced U.S. gross domestic product. However, Greenspan said the surge in oil prices should not inflict the same level of pain on inflation and economic growth as the oil price spike that occurred in the 1970s.
The EIA's weekly survey showed the retail price for cleaner-burning reformulated gasoline, sold in polluted metropolitan areas, increased 5.6 cents to $2.142 a gallon.
By region, the West Coast had the most expensive regular unleaded gasoline, with the price up 5.4 cents to $2.295 a gallon. The U.S. Gulf Coast had the cheapest fuel, with the price up 2.8 cents to $1.913 per gallon.
