Pump prices in U.S. fall a third week

U.S. retail gasoline prices fell for a third straight week, dropping 3.6 cents to $3.06 a gallon, the government said Monday, but drivers were still paying more at the pump than they were a year ago. California had the highest prices after declining 3.7 cents to $3.361 a gallon.

The national average price for regular gasoline remained up 76 cents from a year earlier, the Energy Information Administration said in its weekly survey of service stations.

After diesel fuel hit record highs for four weeks in a row, the average price truckers paid for it declined 2.8 cents to $3.42 a gallon. That was still up 80 cents from this time last year.

The drop in gasoline and diesel costs reflected the fall in the crude oil price, which has sunk about $10 a barrel in the last week. The cost of crude accounts for about half the cost of making gasoline.

In the agency’s latest weekly price survey, gasoline was most expensive on the West Coast, down 2.9 cents at $3.28 a gallon. Among major cities, San Francisco had the highest gasoline costs at $3.47, down 2.2 cents.

The Gulf Coast states had the lowest price by region at $2.94 a gallon, down 3.1 cents. Houston had the cheapest pump price at $2.87 a gallon, down 3 cents.