AFTER a 10-cent rollback last week, fuel prices went up by 15 cents on Tuesday.
Mobil Oil Marianas raised its prices at 1 p.m. while Shell Marianas was expected to follow suit.
The price of regular gasoline went up to $4.87 a gallon from $4.72 a gallon; the premium gas price rose to $5.32 a gallon from $5.17 a gallon; and the price of diesel, which used to be $4.89 a gallon, is now to $5.03 a gallon.
In an interview, Rep. Richard Lizama, who chairs the House Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation and Communication, said it’s about time that the CNMI think about renewable energy.
He recalled that there had been similar suggestions in the past, but the discussions eventually “died out.”
The government has no control over fuel prices, but “someone has to come in with a plan to bring in renewable energy to the islands and then let’s propose it to the Commonwealth Utilities Corp,” Lizama said.
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that the price of oil rose “on expectation of a continuous decline in U.S. oil inventories, recouping some losses from the previous session due to lingering concern over rising cases of the Delta coronavirus variant.”
Brent, the international benchmark for oil prices, rose 60 cents, or 0.8%, to $73.49 a barrel, at 0905 GMT, Reuters said.
It added that U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 63 cents, or 0.9%, at $71.89 a barrel.
For its part, CBS Boston reported that Massachusetts gas prices are rising, and quoted American Automobile Association Northeast’s Mary Maguire as saying, “August could prove to be even more expensive if crude oil prices increase, driven by market concerns of rising Covid case numbers and how that could negatively affect global demand in the near future.”
The Mobil station on Beach Road in Garapan displays its new prices Tuesday.
