From the Tribune’s Jon Hilkevitch last week:
“The CTA is controlling climbing energy costs by locking in the price for three-fourths of the diesel fuel it expects to use this year to power the agency’s approximately 1,800 buses, officials said Wednesday.
With the AAA reporting the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in Chicago hitting $3.91 and on-highway diesel prices averaging $3.82 a gallon this week in the Midwest, the CTA is paying $2.82 per gallon of diesel fuel in the first quarter of 2011, said Karen Walker, the transit agency’s chief financial officer.
The market cost for diesel by high-volume users such as the CTA was $3.08 a gallon in January. In 2010, the CTA’s cost per gallon of diesel averaged $2.71 a gallon, Walker said.”