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While acknowledging many factors play into the price of gasoline, state investigators on Friday still pointed to gas station owners as the villains behind Utah's high prices.

In a report submitted to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., Utah Department of Commerce Director Francine Giani contends retailers are gouging their neighbors.

"They've been making extremely healthy profits off Utah consumers," Giani said, reiterating statements she has made over the course of her month-long investigation. "I'd like to see the price of gasoline be a lot lower."

Gasoline stations typically make only a few cents profit on each gallon of gasoline they sell, but Giani said in recent weeks it "appears" that retailers were making profits several times greater than average.

John Hill, executive director of the Utah Petroleum Marketers & Retailers Association, which represents gas station owners, said Giani took the easy way out by blaming small retailers for the state's high prices.

While he acknowledged that gas stations have been enjoying more profits than usual, he said those profits amount to only a few pennies more for each gallon of gasoline.

"I really don't think it's gouging if retailers, who normally make six cents profit on each gallon of gasoline suddenly, for a short time find they're able to make 12 cents," he said.

Friday's report identified other factors - the state's limited access to pipelines carrying refined gasoline, Utah's geographic isolation and a rising demand that has outpaced growth in supply - as playing a role in gas prices.

Giani also conceded the investigation was plagued by a lack of data. The state's refineries and retailers, for the most part, declined to reveal their profit margins or other information deemed critical to the probe.

"I think its telling that refineries and retailers generally were not willing to provide us with the information we requested," she said.

Hill criticized Giani's advice to consumers to shun buying Twinkies at small stations if they didn't like the price of gasoline.

At the same time, Hill said, big discount gasoline retailers such as Costco and Smith's were charging the same amount for gasoline as the small stations.

"She wasn't telling anyone not to shop at Smith's or avoid Costco," Hill said.

Utah's gasoline prices, which for much of the past year were among the lowest in the country, rose to nearly $2.99 a gallon in late August. The price spike led to an outcry from many consumers and Huntsman ordered an investigation.

Since then, the average price of gasoline in Utah has followed the national average price downward. On Friday, Utah motorists were paying an average price of $2.55 a gallon for unleaded regular gasoline while nationally the average cost was $2.25, according to AAA Utah. A month ago Utah motorists were paying an average of $2.94 per gallon while their counterparts in most other states were paying around $2.59.

Giani said that while the availability of gasoline in the Salt Lake City market is currently adequate, there may be a tightening of the market in the future.

Growth in demand has outpaced the growth in supply for some time, she reported, noting that from 1990 to 2005 Utah's consumption of gasoline grew an average of 2.9 percent per year. At the same time, Utah refineries are operating at near capacity.

Hill said the big money is made on the exploration and refining end of the business.

"Over the past number of years the big oil companies have been selling off their retail operations and now only own about 2.6 of the stations," he said. "If there is so much money to be made on the retail end, then why are they selling them off?"