NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The average price of a regular gallon of gasoline at a self-service pump reached $2.90 Sunday, a 1.6 cent gain from the day before and less than 16 cents below the all-time record, the motorist advocacy group AAA said.

High crude prices, which reached a record above $75 a barrel Friday, and a switch to cleaner-burning summer gasoline that has resulted in some reports of shortages are being blamed for the recent surge in pump prices. (Click here for details)

In its Daily Fuel Gauge Report, AAA said the national average rose to $2.90 from $2.884 Saturday. The average is 15.7 cents below the $3.057 record set last Sept. 5, during the Labor Day weekend, after Hurricane Katrina disrupted oil production and refinery along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The price is up more than 39 cents, or almost 16 percent, from a month ago, when the price was $2.509 a gallon. It's 68.2 cents, or nearly 31 percent, higher than a year ago, when the average was $2.218.

Three states - California, Hawaii and New York - and Washington, D.C., have average regular gas prices above $3 a gallon, according to AAA. Hawaii has the highest average price at $3.226 a gallon. The lowest average price is $2.529 a gallon in Wyoming.

AAA said the average price of a gallon of midgrade gas rose 1.7 cents to $3.079 a gallon, while the average price of premium increased 1.7 cents to $3.19. Diesel rose 1.6 cents to $2.909 a gallon.

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