Despite drop, Utah has 5th highest gas prices

Gas prices have dropped since all-time highs over the summer, but the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded in Utah remains the fifth-highest in the United States.

On Tuesday, the average price in Utah was $3.44, 78 cents lower than the highest price of $4.22 on July 18, but higher than the national average price Tuesday of $3.16, according to AAA.

Heidi Bean of West Valley City filled up her midsize sedan for $50 Tuesday, an $18 decrease from higher prices in the summer. Lower gas prices are a relief for Bean, who fills up two or three times a week. "I drive a ton," she said. "I clean homes, so I drive from house to house."

Over the summer, Bean raised the price of her house-cleaning services to help absorb the overall inflation increases, but she opted against adding a fuel surcharge, for fear of losing customers. When the economy tanks, "housekeeping is the first to go" from a family's budget, she said.

Despite the lower prices Tuesday, Bean was not happy that they remain among the highest in the country. "I'd like us to be average," she said.

Part of the reason for declining gas prices is that global oil prices are decreasing. Light, sweet crude for November delivery closed at $78.63 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday.

But it's hard to pinpoint exactly why Utah's gas prices remain so high in comparison with the rest of the country. In mid-August, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. ordered state agencies to "monitor and analyze" the situation.

"All we were told was to just take a look at the prices, which we did," said Francine Giani, executive director of the Utah Department of Commerce. "As we were doing that, the prices were starting to come down, although very slowly. We tend to come up quickly and come down slowly."

Since Giani wasn't asked to conduct a full-blown investigation, she didn't look at gas prices over time. A government-records request by the Deseret News to her office shows that oil refineries and retailers have refused to release information to her in recent years, claiming they did not want to reveal proprietary information.

The Commerce Department cannot subpoena people or records. "The attorney general could do that under an anti-trust investigation, but that's not part of our purview," Giani said.

The Utah Attorney General's Office is not working on any anti-trust case involving gasoline prices, said Tony Patterson, an assistant attorney general.

"We would have to have some type of report that individuals or companies are meeting together and are entering into some type of agreement to artificially inflate the price of fuel," he said. "And if that was occurring, who would have access to that conversation, who would actually report it to the state?"

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