(The Center Square) – From holiday to holiday, prices for unleaded gasoline and diesel are rising in North Carolina.
As Presidents Day was celebrated on Monday, the average prices were $3.15 for a gallon of unleaded and $4.07 for diesel. A month ago, as Martin Luther King Day was celebrated, the prices were $2.93 for unleaded and $3.86 for diesel.
In the past week alone, those respective prices have risen almost 9 cents for unleaded and 13 cents for diesel.
Nationally, unleaded has risen from just shy of $3.09 a month ago to nearly $3.28. Diesel has climbed from nearly $3.93 to almost $4.10. North Carolina is 26th highest for unleaded, 21st for diesel.
North Carolina this year taxes gasoline at 40.5 cents per gallon, up 2 cents from last year and the seventh-highest in the country. States higher are Pennsylvania (61 cents); California (54); Washington (49); and Illinois, Maryland and New Jersey (all 42). Diesel tax in North Carolina (40 cents per gallon) is 10th behind only Pennsylvania (78); Indiana (55); Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey and Washington (49 each); Ohio (47); Maryland (43); and California (41).
Among 14 major metro areas, unleaded gas is the least expensive in New Bern ($3.06) and most expensive in Durham-Chapel Hill ($3.26). Diesel is most consumer-friendly (about $4.02) in Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, Fayetteville and Jacksonville.
