Motor fuel prices jump while home heating fuels stayed relatively steady or declined over the past week. AAA Iowa reports that as of Wednesday, the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline rose by $.05 to $3.14. This is $1.10 higher than one year ago and $.22 lower than the national average, which went up by $.07 this week. Retail diesel prices also saw a dramatic increase of $.07 a gallon to $3.41, which is $.16 less than the national average of $3.57. One year ago, the average price of diesel in Iowa was $2.18 per gallon. Wholesale ethanol again remained steady at $2.21. Of the three home heating fuels, propane was the only one reporting an increase of a penny to a statewide average of $2.01 per gallon. Home heating oil and natural gas prices both fell, one penny and $.34 respectively. Heating oil is now at an average of $3.04 per gallon and natural gas is at $5.08 per MMBtu.
