Utah orders blanket gas station pump inspections

With Utah gas prices 28 cents higher than the national average, Gov. Jon Huntsman is redeploying his cheese and bakery inspectors to keep gas stations honest.

"This gas deal's gotten everybody pretty excited, and the governor wants people to know we're out testing so consumers get what they pay for," Dale Kunze, a weights and measures inspector, said at a Top Stop gas station where the pumps tested, well, pretty accurate.

Kunze and other inspectors represent Huntsman's vow to keep a "laser-like" focus on gas prices. The Department of Agriculture and Food normally has three inspectors dedicated to keeping tabs on Utah's nearly 28,000 gas pumps. Yet, at Huntsman's prompting, the agency reassigned five other inspectors to the task — they'd normally be at grocery store delis or bakeries to verify weight scales. They also act on such consumer complaints as the supposed 5-pound box of kitty litter that weighed only 4 pounds, or shorting in cheese bricks.

"I rejected a whole pallet of cheese once," Kunze says proudly.

For reasons that aren't entirely clear, Utah's gas prices remain stubbornly high while the national average has dropped steadily over the past month. On Thursday, AAA Utah said prices averaged $3.94 for a gallon of regular, behind only Alaska and Hawaii. The AAA said the national average was $3.66 a gallon.

AAA spokeswoman Rolayne Fairclough said Utah's relatively isolated Rocky Mountain market can work both ways — Utah's prices often are lower than the rest of the nation in winter when gasoline demand eases. But for much of the summer, prices here stayed well above $4 a gallon.

Responding to consumer outrage, Huntsman called out the weights and measures inspectors this month with all the flair of a National Guard deployment. He also announced the Utah Department of Commerce would review any complaints of price gouging. The state is supposed to routinely monitor pumps and investigate price gouging, but Huntsman spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley said it was bringing a "laser-like" focus to its duties.

State authorities suspect gas stations are padding their prices. Two weeks ago, the Utah Petroleum Marketers and Retailers Association admitted to The Salt Lake Tribune that operators were "making a little more than usual" in anticipation of slimmer winter margins.

On Wednesday, however, the group's leader blamed the rest of the supply chain and vigorously defended gas stations he says make only pennies per gallon in the best of times.

"The retailer is a neighbor, even for brand-name gas stations. He's not major oil," John Hill told The Associated Press. "He's some neighbor supporting the soccer team or high-school drama club and trying to make a living. He's not the major oil company making record profits."

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