''There may be some issues on the retail side [of the industry], but we're not certain yet,'' said Francine Giani, director of the Utah Department of Commerce who is leading the state's probe.

"What we may be seeing, though, is just good old-fashioned price gouging," she said, reiterating a statement from last week.

Giani said wholesale gasoline prices in Utah - also known as refinery rack prices - have fallen 35 cents a gallon since mid-August. Yet the retail price of gasoline for much of that time barely budged, and only now is beginning to decline.

"Traditionally, Utah's prices have been lower than the national average," she said. "And it is a crime that we're now paying gasoline prices that are higher than those in both New York and California."

On Monday, AAA Utah reported that a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline in Utah cost an average of $2.80 a gallon, compared with an average of $2.38 nationally. Utah motorists continue to pay the fourth-highest average price for gasoline in the country, with drivers only in Alaska, Hawaii and Nevada paying more to fill their tanks.

Motorists in some states are paying $2 a gallon or less to fill up their automobiles.

Mark Walker of the Lindon-based Walker Oil, which operates 23 retail locations throughout the state, said it "sickens" him that the state is suggesting that retailers may be to blame for the high prices.

"If you want to find out where the problem lies just follow the money," Walker said. "You've got the retailers out here scratching and scrambling to make a nickel, while the big oil companies are making billions and posting 30 percent to 40 percent gains in their profits."

Giani conceded the state's investigation is far from complete.

On Monday, she released the text of several letters sent to the Utah Petroleum Marketers and Retailers Association and to the Utah Petroleum Association, asking them to provide the details of their industry's cost structure.

She wants the Utah Petroleum Marketers organization, which represents the state's retailers, to verify claims made in a public hearing last week that retail prices cannot be reduced until the higher-priced gasoline in filling station storage tanks is sold and replaced with lower-cost motor fuel. That assertion has drawn widespread criticism and derision from consumers and national industry analysts.

And she is asking for proof that there has been a shortage of gasoline supplies in Utah, which allegedly has contributed to high pump prices.

John Hill, director of the Utah Petroleum Marketers, said his members will do what they can to address the state's request for information.

"But if they [the state investigators] really want to understand the gasoline market in Utah, they should be looking at more than six weeks of data. You would have to at least look at the entire summer, but six months, a year would be better."

And Walker said what Walker Oil's data would show is that his company hasn't posted a profit from gasoline sales for the past seven months. "It's been a long time since we've seen any black," he said.

Utah's retailers aren't the only businesses in the state's spotlight.

In a letter to the Utah Petroleum Association, a trade organization that represents the state's refineries, Giani is requesting information on the amount of crude oil purchased from domestic and foreign sources. She also is asking that the organization provide the daily price per barrel paid by the refineries for crude oil from those sources.

Lee Peacock, president of the Utah Petroleum Association, has suggested that demand for gasoline in Utah is high, which he alleges would keep prices up. And he said last week that Salt Lake gasoline prices are "slower to go up and slower to go down" but suggested that consumers soon will see lower prices.

And that already may be happening.

Giani noted that the state has added links on the governor's Web site that can help Utahn's find the lowest gas prices in their areas. And that Web site, which can be accessed by going to www.utah.gov/governor and clicking on the words "Find Cheap Gas Prices in Utah," shows that in Salt Lake City on Monday the lowest retail price for gasoline was $2.58 a gallon, at a 7-Eleven store at 2100 S. State St.

steve@sltrib.com