The discount retailer Costco is complaining to U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders that it’s being blocked by Vermont’s environmental permit process from offering cheap gasoline at its store in Colchester.
Costco Vice President Joe Portera wrote to Sanders to say that some of those opposing permits for the gas pumps outside the Colchester store are owners of other gasoline retailers in northwestern Vermont.
Sanders has been speaking out lately about what he says are higher than needed prices for gasoline at stations in Chittenden, Franklin and Lamoille counties.
Portera wrote to Sanders that Costco could have been selling gas for 19 cents less per gallon than the average price in the area during the past two years.