Most Vermont drivers have noticed the steady upward creep of gas prices in recent weeks.
According to GasBuddy.com, which tracks prices nationally, the average retail price for a gallon of gasoline in the Burlington area has ticked up by more than 14 cents in the past month.
One factor is the yearly changeover from winter blend to summer blend gasoline.
According to Joe Choquette of the Vermont Petroleum Association, “When that happens there’s always a decline in the current supply that you can sell now and it's being replaced by the summer blend which is a little more expensive to make.”
Although seasonal changes are part of the increase, per gallon Burlington prices are 29 cents higher than they were a year ago.
"Our prices seem to have stayed up higher than they have in the rest of the country for a while now." Joe Choquette of the Vermont Petroleum Association.
That’s in spite of the fact that crude oil inventories are high thanks to record US oil production.
Much of the increase is due to fracking technology used in Western states.
Despite the boom in crude oil production, Choquette says not everyone benefits.
“We don’t refine all the same kind of crude oil. The crude oil we refine on the East Coast is more expensive than the crude oil we refine in the middle of the country and on the West Coast,” he says.
“The central part of the nation and the West Coast are getting some benefit from the discoveries they’ve made out there, but the East Coast doesn’t seem to be getting that benefit. Our prices seem to have stayed up higher than they have in the rest of the country for a while now.”
Explaining gas prices has always been a topic of debate.
As the accompanying chart shows, prices rise and fall to different degrees and at different times each year.
There’s general agreement that demand, changes in refining capacity, political tensions and speculation influence the price of gasoline.
Two years ago Sen.Bernie Sanders cited another possibility. Sanders asked the government to investigate prices in Northwestern Vermont, suggesting that retailers were keeping them artificially high.
The Federal Trade Commission looked into Sanders’ allegations but took no action.
