What Happened
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) published its weekly pump-price survey on Wednesday, September 9, and the diesel line set a record. The national average for on-highway diesel was $5.967 a gallon for the week of September 7, up 36.8 cents in a single week and $2.201 higher than the same week a year earlier.
The previous high in EIA’s weekly series, which runs back to 1994, was $5.810 on June 20, 2022, four months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The auto club AAA’s daily average, a separate series, had passed its own June 2022 high the previous Friday, September 4, at $5.85, which NPR and CNBC reported that day. The EIA figure is the official one, drawn from a survey of stations dated each Monday.
Regular gasoline moved too, but it is nowhere near a record. The national average was $4.157, up 8.6 cents on the week and 96.5 cents on the year. Regular’s record is $5.006, set on June 13, 2022.
Key Details
- The record: $5.967 a gallon, national average, week of September 7, 2026.
- The old record: $5.810 on June 20, 2022.
- Since the Iran war began: EIA’s last survey before the strikes on Iran began at the end of February, dated February 23, put diesel at $3.809, so the fuel has risen $2.16 in about six months.
- Where it hurts most: California diesel averaged $7.764, the West Coast $6.987, and the Midwest $5.946. The East Coast was the cheapest of EIA’s five main regions at $5.744.
- The diesel premium: diesel now costs $1.81 a gallon more than regular. A year ago, using the same EIA table, the gap was 57 cents.
Why Your Groceries Care
Most drivers never buy a gallon of diesel, which is why a diesel record is easy to shrug off. It should not be. EIA’s own explainer puts it plainly: “Most of the products we use are transported by trucks and trains with diesel engines, and most construction, farming, and military vehicles and equipment also have diesel engines.”
Patrick De Haan, the petroleum analyst at GasBuddy, described the same thing to NPR as the “three t’s” of the economy: trains, tractors, and trucks. Farm equipment runs on diesel, so a record in September lands in the middle of harvest. The truck that carries the harvest to a warehouse runs on diesel. So does the one that carries it to the store. NPR also notes that about 90% of the nation’s 500,000 school buses run on diesel, and that the price rise has stretched district budgets as the school year begins.
The mechanism is not mysterious. Freight carriers charge fuel surcharges that track the EIA weekly diesel price, so a jump like this week’s shows up on shipping invoices almost immediately. Retailers pay those invoices. Shoppers pay the retailers. The lag is short.
Why Diesel and Not Gasoline
Diesel and gasoline come out of the same barrel of crude, yet one is at a record and the other is 85 cents below its own. The difference is refining capacity, not oil.
CNBC’s report on the record cited Valero Chief Operating Officer Gary Simmons, who said on the refiner’s July 30 earnings call that the wars have shut down refineries with about 5 million barrels per day of capacity. Ukraine has been striking Russian refineries, and Moscow responded by banning diesel exports. Refineries in the Middle East are also offline because of Iran’s attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and on regional energy infrastructure. NPR adds that some refineries in Asia have limited their diesel exports, tightening global supply further.
For the refinery side of the story, the site’s April coverage of the Strait closure is at 54 Days Closed the Strait. 30 More Kill the Refineries.
What’s Next
EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), published the same day as the record, does not expect relief soon. The agency forecasts that U.S. distillate fuel oil inventories will drop below 100 million barrels in September and will remain below the five-year low through much of 2027. It assumes global distillate production will stay below last year’s levels in the coming months, which it says is “contributing to low U.S. diesel inventories and high diesel prices.”
EIA does expect the pump price to ease from here, but not to where it was: its forecast table has retail diesel averaging $5.07 a gallon for 2026 as a whole and $4.40 in 2027, both raised from the August forecast. Crude itself is a different story. EIA forecasts Brent to average around $90 a barrel in the second half of 2026 and to fall to an average of $74 in 2027 as production rises and inventories rebuild. That is why the pump price to watch is not the one on the big sign. It is the smaller diesel number below it, and the gap between the two.
The live pump-price card on the Money & Power page shows both fuels against their past peaks and refreshes when EIA publishes.
Sources (7)
- eia.gov Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update, week of September 7, 2026
- eia.gov Weekly U.S. No 2 Diesel Retail Prices, full history
- eia.gov Weekly U.S. Regular Gasoline Retail Prices, full history
- eia.gov Short-Term Energy Outlook, September 2026
- cnbc.com Diesel hits record high as Ukraine and Iran wars knock out refineries
- npr.org The price of diesel hits a record high
- eia.gov Diesel fuel explained, use of diesel
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