US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ronald L. Wyden (D-Ore.) requested information from the US Energy Information Administration about rising US gasoline prices for a hearing he plans to hold on the situation.
“This most recent round of gas price increases has come at a time of year when gas prices are typically at their lowest point, but that has not been the case this autumn and winter,” Wyden said in a Mar. 11 letter to EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski.
Wyden asked the agency to provide data concerning US oil production, exports and imports, refining capacity, transportation and midstream capacity, and consumption in preparation for a hearing he plans to hold later this spring.
EIA data show that average US gasoline prices set records for the months of September, October, November, December, and February, he noted.
Wyden sent the letter as EIA reported US retail regular gasoline prices averaged $3.71/gal for the week ended Mar. 11, down 4.9¢ from a week earlier and 11.9¢ from a year earlier. Two consecutive weeks of declines followed 10 weeks of increases from $3.25/gal on Dec. 17, 2012, to an average $3.78/gal on Feb. 25, EIA’s figures showed.
On-highway retail diesel fuel prices for the week ended Mar. 11 averaged $4.09/gal nationwide, 4.2¢ less than a week earlier and $3.5¢ less than the comparable week in 2012, according to EIA. Its figures showed two consecutive weekly declines from the recent peak of $4.16/gal on Feb. 25 followed seven consecutive weekly increases from $3.91/gal on Jan. 7.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].
