Gas at record price

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. retail price for gasoline set a new high of $3.29 a gallon after rising 3.1 cents over the last week, the federal Energy Information Administration said on Monday.

The national price for regular, self-service gasoline is up 58 cents from a year ago as expensive crude oil continued to be passed on to consumers at the pump, the Energy Department's analytical arm said in its weekly survey of service stations.

The American Petroleum Institute, the trade group for big oil companies, said on Monday that high crude prices are mostly behind consumer pain the pump.

U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday are expected to press the executives from five major oil companies, including ExxonMobil, BP and Shell, at a congressional hearing on soaring gasoline prices and the industry's billions of dollars in record profits.

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