The food-stamp economy
On the last day of every month, shoppers at Walmart load their carts with food and household items and wait for the midnight hour. Is this the new normal in America? Full Article
Gasoline and diesel prices soar to records: EIA
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. drivers dug deeper into their pockets to fill up at the pump, as the average price for gasoline skyrocketed 10.9 cents over the last week to a record of $3.72 a gallon, the federal Energy Information Administration said on Monday.
The national price for regular, self-service gasoline was up 62 cents from a year ago due to soaring crude oil prices. Crude hit a record $126.40 a barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday.
Congress is hoping to give consumers some relief. Both the Senate and House of Representatives will vote on legislation Tuesday that supporters believe will help bring down oil and gasoline prices.
Lawmakers are expected to approve proposals that would suspend oil deliveries to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until crude prices fall below $75 a barrel, putting more supplies in the market that in turn would push fuel costs lower.
The White House rejected the idea, saying a bigger emergency oil stockpile is needed to help offset any major supply disruptions. The reserve now holds almost 703 million barrels of crude in underground salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana.
The EIA's latest weekly survey of service stations found gasoline was the most expensive on the West Coast at $3.83 a gallon, up 3.3 cents. San Francisco had the highest city price at $3.95, up 1.7 cents.
The Rocky Mountain states had the lowest regional price at $3.61 a gallon, up 11.5 cents. Houston had the cheapest pump price, up 10.3 cents, at $3.57.
Truckers and other users of diesel fuel took another hit at the pump, with diesel fuel soaring 18.2 cents over the last week to a record $4.33 a gallon, up $1.56 from a year earlier.
The central Atlantic states had the most expensive diesel at $4.52 a gallon, up 17.1 cents. The Gulf Coast region had the cheapest fuel at $4.27, up 18.4 cents, the EIA said.
Truckers have staged protests against record diesel prices. It costs about $1,200 to fuel up a tractor trailer.
(Editing by Christian Wiessner)
