Gas Prices Jump In Last Week

The summer driving season is long past and demand for gasoline remains light, but the price of the fuel is quickly moving higher, thanks to the declining value of the U.S. Dollar.

The national average price of self-serve regular today is $2.876 a gallon, up from $2.819 last Friday, according to AAA. That's more than 21 cents higher than at this time last year.

The price of diesel fuel is $3.165 a gallon, nearly seven cents higher than a week ago.

It's small consolation to motorists having to pay more at the pump, but the rise in gas prices has very little to do with the scarcity of the product and everything to do with the value of the money used to pay for it. Ever since the Federal Reserve announced its second round of  "quantitative easing," the value of the dollar has declined and the price of crude oil has surged on world markets.

Energy prices sometimes go up on the expectation that the economy is improving and that demand for oil and gasoline will rise, but that apparently isn't the case now.

"Demand for gasoline has lagged behind the same period in 2009, demonstrating that this rise in pump prices is not demand driven and has more to do with continued weakness of the dollar and subsequent strength of crude prices," said Andrew Delmege, AAA's manager of regulatory affairs.

 The states with the most expensive gasoline today are:

• Hawaii ($3.523)

• Alaska ($3.499)

• California ($3.149)

• Washington ($3.093)

• New York ($3.065)

• Connecticut ($3.067)

• Oregon ($2.993)

• Idaho ($2.949)

• North Dakota ($2.931)

• Montana ($2.926)

The states with the least expensive gasoline today are:

• Missouri ($2.672)

• South Carolina ($2.687)

• Texas ($2.700)

• Mississippi ($2.710)

• Tennessee ($2.711)

• Oklahoma ($2.713)

• Colorado ($2.714)

• Arkansas ($2.721)

• Louisiana ($2.729)

• Alabama ($2.737)