California gasoline prices increase for first time in nine weeks
Retail gasoline prices in California rose for the first time in nine weeks, according to the Energy Department’s weekly fuel price survey. The national average also rose modestly over the last week.
In California, the average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.753 on Monday, up 0.2 cents since July 9. California prices were 4.7 cents a gallon below what they were a year earlier.
The national average rose 1.6 cents to $3.427 a gallon, the Energy Department said. That’s 25.5 cents below the average a year earlier.
Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service, said Americans were still paying a lot for fuel, noting that the nation’s motorists collectively paid about $1.27 billion for fuel on Monday. A year earlier, they paid $1.39 billion a day for fuel, he said.
In other energy news, U.S. crude oil prices rose $1.33 to $88.43 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Analysts said that the rise was based on hopes that the Federal Reserve would take additional steps to prop up the weak U.S. economic recovery. In London, Brent crude rose $1.95 to $103.37 a barrel.
