Gasoline Prices See 2.2-Cent Gain

Gasoline prices in California rose 2.2 cents over the last seven days to a statewide average of $1.617 a gallon, reversing course after five straight weeks of declines, according to a federal survey.

The increase is just the second weekly uptick since Aug. 25, when a monthlong surge pushed the state’s pump prices to more than $2.10 a gallon for regular, according to figures from the Energy Information Administration, an arm of the Department of Energy that tracks gasoline prices.

Nationwide, the average retail price of regular rose 3.2 cents to $1.51 a gallon, the EIA said. For the third week in a row, New York supplanted perennial leader California as the state with the most expensive gasoline from among those surveyed by the EIA. New Yorkers paid an average of $1.643 for a gallon of regular.

-- Elizabeth Douglass