The U.S. average retail price of diesel dropped 4 cents to $3.121 a gallon, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Dec. 17, as crude oil prices dropped below $50 per barrel.
The drop in diesel marked the ninth consecutive weekly decline in the price of trucking’s main fuel. The price has fallen 27.3 cents during that period.
Yet diesel costs 22 cents a gallon more than it did a year ago, when the price was $2.901, EIA reported.
Average diesel prices fell in all regions of the country, led by the Rocky Mountain region, where per-gallon costs dropped 6.1 cents to $3.178 per gallon.
The smallest drop was 1.9 cents a gallon in the New England region.
Gasoline fell 5.2 cents to $2.369 per gallon. The sharpest regional drop was in the Rocky Mountain region, where prices fell by 8 cents, according to the EIA. The national average price is 8.1 cents lower than one year ago.