US Diesel Price Hits New Record High, Pressuring Trump

The Department of Energy/Energy Information Administration (DOE/EIA) average weekly retail diesel price rose 31.8 cents per gallon to $6.285 per gallon, effective Monday but announced Tuesday, marking the highest price in its history.

This price is up $1.707 per gallon since the first price in July of $4.578 per gallon. The average diesel price in the United States reached just under $6.27 a gallon on Tuesday, according to the motorists' association AAA, adding pressure on President Donald Trump ahead of midterm congressional elections. The AAA all-time high price had been $5.82 per gallon, set in June 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

That record was broken last week, with the price setting a new all-time high Tuesday at $6.2694 per gallon. The DTS.USA price on Tuesday was $6.26, also an all-time high. Ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) on the CME commodity exchange settled Thursday at $5.0575 per gallon, only the second time in its history it settled above the $5 mark.

In early trading Monday, ULSD reached $5.19 per gallon at one point, before a late selloff brought it down to $4.9615 per gallon. ULSD futures prices continued to rise Tuesday, up 15.99 cents per gallon to $5.1214 per gallon at 9:25 a.m. EDT. Arne Lohmann Rasmussen, chief analyst at Global Risk Management, stated that the diesel and gas oil markets remain extremely tight.

Rasmussen added that the shortage of refined products from the Middle East matters far more than a halt to Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries. Average U.S. diesel prices jumped above $6 a gallon for the first time Friday, having surged from $3.7577 a gallon at the start of the US-Iran war.