Small gasoline price rise is California’s first in nine weeks

Retail gasoline prices in California are rising for the first time in nine weeks, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. The national average also rose modestly over the past week.

In California, the average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline is $3.716, up 0.8 cent since last Monday. Just a month ago, the state’s average was 29.7 cents a gallon higher. California prices are also 8.2 cents a gallon below the 2011 amount.

The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline rose by 1.4 cents since last Monday to $3.396 a gallon, the AAA said. That’s 11.9 cents a gallon lower than last month and 27.8 cents under the average in 2011.

In other energy news, U.S. crude oil prices were creeping higher, up 22 cents a barrel to $87.32 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Analysts said that the rise was based on hopes that the Federal Reserve would take additional steps to prop up the weak U.S. economic recovery.

In the past two weeks, U.S. oil prices have regained about $10 of the $30 a barrel they lost in late June.

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