Fuel gets cheaper as crude prices fall

Gasoline prices fell in California and the rest of the nation during the last week, dropping to the lowest level in more than a month, the government said Monday, as declining crude oil prices helped to push down costs at the pump.

California drivers spent an average of $3.329 for a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline, down 3.2 cents from a week earlier but up 83 cents from the same time last year, according to the Energy Information Administration’s weekly survey of service stations.

The national price for regular gasoline fell 6.1 cents over the last week to $3 a gallon, the agency said. That’s still up 71 cents from this time last year but a better deal for consumers than the $3.11 they were paying a month earlier.

Truckers are also getting a break at the pump, with diesel fuel down 9.1 cents in the last week to $3.325 a gallon, up 70 cents from a year earlier. Diesel prices two weeks earlier averaged a record $3.44 a gallon.

Falling gasoline and diesel prices mirror the drop in crude oil prices, which account for about half the cost of making motor fuels.

The price of U.S. oil fell 42 cents to $87.86 a barrel Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange after reaching an all-time high of $99.29 on Nov. 21. Traders attributed the decline to forecasts that warm weather in the United States would slash demand for heating fuels, adding to a weak outlook for the nation’s energy use amid an economic slowdown.

In the energy agency’s latest weekly price survey, gasoline was most expensive on the West Coast, down 3.2 cents to $3.244 a gallon. Among major cities, San Francisco had the highest gasoline costs at $3.436, down 3.8 cents.

The Gulf Coast states had the lowest price by region at $2.876 a gallon, down 5.9 cents. Cleveland had the cheapest pump price at $2.81 a gallon, down 13.2 cents.