AAA Utah, which tracks gasoline prices throughout the state, reported that nationally the average cost of unleaded regular gasoline hit $3.01. In Utah, the average price is about a nickel more a gallon.

Yet even with gasoline prices in Utah at the highest level ever, retailers indicate so far they aren't seeing any big decrease in demand for motor fuel.

"Demand seems pretty steady," said Ryan Jones, manager of Ray Jones Sinclair Service in Holladay. "What we have seen, though, is that our customers are buying a lot less of the premium grades of gasoline."

One of the big questions overhanging the gasoline markets in Utah and the rest of the country is at what point motorists will begin to curtail their consumption.

"Eventually we'll reach a tipping point but I have no idea where that might be," said Rolayne Fairclough, spokeswoman for AAA Utah.

She said it is encouraging that last year in California, where gasoline prices were above $3 a gallon for seven months of the year, drivers reduced their consumption of motor fuel by 1 percent - and that was despite the state's growing population.

Still, adjusted for inflation, gasoline is cheaper than it was 26 years ago, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, which indicated the $1.41 a gallon average in March 1981 equals $3.20 at today's prices.

Utah economist Jeff Thredgold, economic consultant to Zions First National Bank, said prices may need to increase well beyond the $3 a gallon range before more Utahns begin looking for ways to cut back.

"We've seen gasoline costing around $3 a gallon several times the past 12 months. And while that clearly has had an impact on those with low incomes, for many people it has just been an irritant up to this point," he said. "We may have to see $3.75, maybe even $4 a gallon before people really start looking for ways to reduce their consumption."

Finding people to blame for the high prices resonates with filling-station owners.

"The public has been pretty kind to retailers, understanding that the retailers are not the bad guys in this thing," said Charley Jones, president and co-owner of Stinker Stores, a fuel wholesale and retailer in Boise, Idaho. "But nobody is happy about the price. Nobody feels sorry for a retailer, nobody feels sorry for a refiner."

Nationally, gasoline prices have been driven higher by a plethora of unexpected refinery outages and shutdowns in recent weeks. Those outages have been reflected in weekly government data that has shown gasoline inventories to be falling at a time of year when most analysts think they should be rising.

With the summer driving season set to begin Memorial Day weekend, those low inventories are raising concerns that refineries won't be producing enough gasoline to meet demand without another sharp increase in prices.

"Refineries set the price of gasoline and after that there really isn't too much that retailers can do about it," John Hill, state director for the Utah Petroleum Marketers and Retailers Association, said Friday. "There isn't any excess supply hitting the market these days."

Hill said the association's retail members are only making a few cents off each gallon of gasoline.

"They don't like to see prices go up anymore than anyone else," he said. "And with prices so high even a one-cent difference can send a loyal customer across the street to fill up their car.

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* Tribune wire services contributed to this story.