U.S. gasoline, diesel prices hit new records

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The average price U.S. drivers paid for gasoline soared to a new high of $3.51 a gallon, rising 11.9 cents over the last week, the government said on Monday.

The national average price for regular, self-service gasoline is up 64 cents from a year ago, the federal Energy Information Administration's said in its latest survey of service stations.

Pump prices are rising because of high crude oil costs, which on Monday climbed to a record $117.83 a barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price of crude oil accounts for about 70 percent of the cost for making gasoline.

The EIA's weekly survey showed gasoline was again the most expensive on the West Coast at $3.73 a gallon, up 7.2 cents. San Francisco had the highest city price at $3.86, up 4.5 cents.

The Gulf Coast states had the cheapest regional price at $3.41 a gallon, up 12.6 cents. Cleveland had the lowest city price, up 7 cents to $3.36.

As fuel prices roar to successive record highs, more Americans are planning to cut back on driving and buy fewer gas-guzzling vehicles, according to a consumer group survey released on Monday.

U.S. households spent more than $100 billion on gasoline during the first quarter of this year, more than double the $40 billion spent in the same period just six years ago, said the Consumer Federation of America.

"That's a huge bite out of the household budget," said Mark Cooper, CFA's research director. "People will use less gasoline."

Meanwhile, two U.S. lawmakers on Monday asked the White House to create a special Justice Department task force to examine possible fraud and manipulation of oil and natural gas markets.

The lawmakers said supply and demand conditions can't explain current record oil prices, and suggested investments in the energy markets by speculators were at fault.

Separately, the weekly price for diesel fuel jumped 8.4 cents to a record $4.14 a gallon, up $1.29 from a year ago, the EIA said.

Average diesel fuel prices remained above $4 a gallon in every region of the country.

The central Atlantic states had the most expensive diesel at $4.37 a gallon, up 10.4 cents. The Gulf Coast region had the cheapest fuel at $4.08, up 8.5 cents, the EIA said.

The survey conducted for the CFA found that 60 percent of respondents said rising gasoline prices caused them much or some hardship, with 27 percent reporting much hardship.

As a result, 45 percent of those surveyed said they were driving less compared with a year earlier, while only 10 percent said they were driving more.

Higher gasoline costs will dramatically change the types of vehicles consumers buy in the future, according to the CFA.

Forty-two percent said they intended to purchase vehicles with average fuel economy of more than 30 miles per gallon, compared with the median for current vehicles of 24 mpg.

(Editing by Christian Wiessner)