WASHINGTON, March 3 (UPI) -- Soaring crude oil prices and rising driver demand are pushing U.S. gasoline prices to record levels.
The national average price of unleaded gasoline has risen to $1.72 for a gallon, up nearly 3 cents from last week, the federal Energy Information Administration said.
That is just shy of the record $1.75 per gallon recorded last August.
West Virginia and Nevada hit new highs Tuesday, as did hard-driving southern California.
On Tuesday, crude oil settled $36.66 a barrel, down 20 cents in New York Mercantile Exchange trading but still near its post-Iraq war high, as traders fretted about supply, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Last month, the world's leading crude oil producers pledged to cut production further to keep the price high.
Intensifying instability in Venezuela, the fourth-largest crude oil exporter to the United States, also added upward price pressure to the raw material from which gasoline is processed.
