Gasoline pushes U.S. prices up as Alaska diesel runs 61% above a year ago

Gasoline accounted for more than half of a 0.6% rise in U.S. consumer prices in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. Prices were up 3.7% from a year earlier.

Over the year, gasoline cost about a third more, fuel oil about three-quarters more and airline fares 22% more. Food rose 2.5% and shelter 3.2%. In urban Alaska, BLS's energy index was up 20% from a year earlier.

In Alaska, diesel has climbed faster than gasoline. The statewide average was $6.57 a gallon Wednesday, $2.48 more than a year ago, according to AAA. It hit AAA's record for Alaska, about $6.70, on Sept. 25. Regular gasoline averaged $4.98, about $1.10 more than a year ago but below the record of $5.61 set in June 2022.

About a quarter of Alaska homes heat mainly with fuel oil or kerosene, compared with 4% nationally, according to a 2020 federal survey. And about 82,000 Alaskans in 193 communities buy power from utilities that rely largely on diesel, according to the Alaska Energy Authority, which runs the Power Cost Equalization program to help them with electricity costs that can run three to five times higher than in Alaska's cities.

AAA's numbers are pump prices. Communities in western Alaska and along its rivers are locked into the price of fuel delivered the summer before, according to the state's fuel survey. Galena's utility paid 29% more a gallon for this year's barge fuel, Alaska News reported Sept. 24.

The state's summer fuel survey found heating fuel averaging $7.97 a gallon in 90 unsubsidized communities, 44% above the national average, and $9 in western Alaska. The report said much of that fuel, particularly in western Alaska, was likely bought when crude oil prices peaked in the spring. Some communities had not set new prices when the survey ended, it said, so the full effect in western Alaska may not show up until the winter survey.