BURLINGTON — Dean Corren, a Progressive candidate for lieutenant governor who also has the Democratic nomination, added his voice to those of other Vermont politicians decrying higher than average gas prices in northwestern Vermont.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., brought the issue to the fore in 2012 with a congressional field hearing at which he said a lack of competition in the region drives up prices.
Outside McCaffrey’s Sunoco station on North Avenue on Monday, Corren echoed Sanders’ message, flanked by a poster with photos taken Sunday showing gas prices 19 cents higher at stations in Burlington than one in Rutland.
A 19-cent difference per gallon means an extra $100 annually for the average driver, Corren said. With 240,000 vehicles in the three northwestern Vermont counties, that equals a $23 million annual “premium” those residents are paying, he said.
Corren, who was joined by Democratic Attorney General Bill Sorrell, called for a state-based solution to bring more competition to the region, and said, if elected, he would push legislation that will foster competition. Corren is challenging Republican two-term incumbent Lt. Gov. Phil Scott. Liberty Union candidate Marina Brown is also running.
Corren and Sorrell said Costco’s efforts to sell gas at its Colchester location are evidence that distributors are resisting competition. Costco’s entering the market would bring in a competitor selling gas at prices they said could be as much as 20 cents lower than other filling stations in the area.
That effort is stalled in environmental court, where two of Costco’s potential competitors contend the filling station would threaten wetlands.
Sorrell said he’s not aware of any local environmental groups involved in the case, but noted with some irony the competitors’ “strong environmental concerns.”
Between 2009 and 2012 gas prices in Burlington-area exceeded the national average 86 percent of the time, sometimes by as much as 29 cents per gallon, according to figures presented by Sanders at the 2012 hearing.
Burlington prices exceeded the statewide average 72 percent of time. Prices in St. Albans exceeded the U.S. and Vermont average 90 percent of the time.
Four gasoline distributors – S.B.Collins, Champlain Oil, R.L. Vallee, and Wesco – own nearly two-thirds of the region’s 185 filling stations, Sanders said at the 2012 hearing.
Joseph Choquette III, a lobbyist for the Vermont Petroleum Association, said Monday that the northwest region has a very competitive market, and the lower prices in Rutland, captured by Corren, are the result of an “intense price war” there that has “cut prices to almost no margin.”
Higher prices in Middlebury and other surrounding areas are “spillover” from the price war in Rutland, he said.
Corren said, if elected, he would push for a hearing on legislation, supported by Sorrell, to allow the attorney general to collect data on fuel distributors showing how much gas they sell and to whom. It would also give the attorney general advance notice if a station is being sold.
The legislation, H. 476, from 2013, was introduced by Rep. Chris Pearson, P-Burlington, who works on Corren’s campaign. It received hearings in the House, Corren said, but was not taken up by the Senate and never received a vote in either chamber.
A lieutenant governor can’t call for hearings, but Corren said the office’s role in committee selections would allow him to push for a transportation committee chair who would be receptive to holding a hearing on the bill.
Choquette said the legislation won’t have the desired effect, and the reporting requirements could drive prices up even further.
“Everybody would like to have lower gas prices, but I don’t see anything in that bill that would do that,” Choquette said.
The bill isn’t a “silver bullet,” Sorrell said, but it could help “avoid greater consolidation and bring greater transparency to what’s going into the price per gallon charged at the pump.”
His office isn’t always aware when a filling station is sold, and the notice would allow the attorney general to oppose the sale if he thought it was anticompetitive, Sorrell said.
Sen. Dick Mazza, D-Grand Isle, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, said Monday that he would take testimony on the bill if it came to his committee.
The higher gas prices in the northwest part of the state are an issue, Mazza said, but he questioned what the Legislature or the attorney general could do if nothing illegal is taking place.
Pat McCaffrey, owner of the Sunoco station where Corren held his news conference, said he’s always after lower wholesale prices.
He could go with a different distributor to get a lower price, or he could go the independent route, but both options mean he might end up with less total volume, McCaffrey said.
His customers frequently ask about the variation in prices across the state, but it’s a question that they’ve been asking for close to 25 years, he said.
As to whether new legislation would provide answers to their question, he said he didn’t know.
