Is it politics or just the marketplace at work?
Whatever the reason, the steady decline in gasoline prices appears to be over.
Prices have crept back up since Election Day, jumping 14 cents a gallon at one local station in less than a month.
At the Stewart's Shop convenience store on West Street, self-serve regular gas was $2.28 a gallon on Friday — a store that traditionally is one of the cheapest places to buy gas in town. That's a spike of 14 cents since the November election.
According to the Department of Public Service, the average price of regular self-serve gas in the state has inched up from $2.23 a gallon on Nov. 6 to $2.29 a gallon on Nov. 27. That's still a bargain compared with a year ago when gasoline prices soared well past the $3 mark for the first time.
The Web site www.vermontgasprices.com pegged the lowest average price last month at $2.16 a gallon on Nov. 4, rising to an average of $2.27 a gallon on Nov. 30.
Nationally, the average price has increased nearly a nickel over the past three weeks to $2.25 a gallon on Nov. 27, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.
Critics of the oil industry have speculated that gas prices nationwide dropped leading up to the November election as a way to help pro-business Republicans retain control of Congress. That's a view held by Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., who won election last month to the Senate.
"During the campaign I expressed the view that gas prices would probably rise after the election," Sanders said in a statement. "Given the fact that high gas prices were a major political problem for the Republicans coming into the election, I was not surprised that prices went down as we got close to Election Day. Nor am I surprised that they have risen since the election."
The price of gas at the Stewart's Shop wasn't the lowest in town Friday. At the Cumberland Farms store on South Main Street, regular self-serve gas was $2.26 a gallon. Prices were higher elsewhere: $2.34 a gallon at the Mobil station at the corner of West and South Main streets and $2.32 a gallon at the Mac's convenience store on South Main Street.
Based in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., the Stewart's Shops is a major gasoline retailer with 321 stores in upstate New York, Massachusetts and Vermont. The company operates 11 stores in Vermont, including four in Rutland City.
A company spokesman said the rising cost of crude oil is the biggest reason for higher prices at the pump.
"Crude oil is the driving force right now that's over $63 (a barrel) and that's in part being driven by inventory levels that are down from a year ago," said David Rothberg, the chain's gasoline marketing manager.
Rothberg said the prospect that OPEC may cut production is a major factor as well. Add to that, he said, is unrest in oil-rich Nigeria as well as continuing volatility in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East.
As far as politics playing a part in the recent spike in gas prices, Rothberg said that from his perspective that's not part of the equation.
"I personally don't think that the election or politics has anything to do with the pricing at this point," he said. "It seems to be more overseas and inventory driven versus politics driven at this point."
Although Stewart's sells more than 4 million gallons of gasoline a week, Rothberg said the company is at the mercy of higher wholesale prices because it doesn't have the ability to stockpile gasoline when prices are low.
"We're getting deliveries three times a week in the stores so that says when we get a cost increase, because we don't have excess inventory, we're passing that cost increase on very rapidly to our consumers," he said.
On the other hand, he said when the wholesale price of gasoline goes down, Stewart's doesn't get stuck with higher priced inventory. | 
