SALT LAKE CITY -- Refinery and gas station representatives denied any effort to keep gasoline prices in Utah artificially high amid a state investigation into why prices remain at the fourth-highest level in the country.
As reported in CSP Daily News earlier this week, Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. directed Francine Giani, executive director of the Utah Department of Commerce, and Dr. Laura Nelson, the governor's energy advisor, to investigate the ongoing high cost of gasoline in the state, which he termed as remarkably high.
On Tuesday, [image-nocss] gasoline prices in Utah averaged $2.88 per unleaded gallon, compared with an average of $2.49 nationally, reported the Salt Lake Tribune. Only Idaho, Hawaii and Alaska have higher average prices. Gasoline prices in some other states are close to $2 a gallon as oil prices continue to fall to six-month lows.
Giani said the nearly 40-cent discrepancy between Utah's prices and the national average is a situation that begs an explanation.
According to the newspaper, Lee Peacock, president of the Utah Petroleum Association, suggested that demand in Utah is high, which tends to drive prices higher. John Hill, director of the Utah Petroleum Marketers & Retailers Association, said station owners are using up gasoline purchased at higher prices in recent weeks. He said prices will fall as they purchase wholesale gasoline at lower prices.
Giani questioned why gasoline prices have not fallen more quickly in Utah, given the fact that the wholesale price at the state's refineries has dropped significantly in recent weeks. She said she wants proof that station owners are still using up gasoline purchased at higher prices. She also said she wants more information about the state's five refineries.
Hill and Peacock said they would try, but would not guarantee, that individual businesses would provide information to Giani, who in turn reiterated again that such information is needed in her investigation.
Peacock said that generally Salt Lake gasoline prices are slower to go up and slower to go down, adding later that consumers should be patient because Utah prices are clearly going down. This is a matter of timing, he told the paper. It's hard for consumers to understand.
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