BURLINGTON, Vt. – Vermont’s average gasoline price of $2.828 per gallon of regular unleaded was the lowest in the Northeast, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report.

Vermont’s price also was below the national average of $2.962, according to the AAA. It’s been below the national average for two months.

Connecticut, by comparison, had the highest prices in the region with an average of $3.185 per gallon of regular unleaded. The Maine average was $2.879.

“I’ve kind of been waiting for the shoe to drop and it hasn’t dropped,” said Tom Williams, Vermont manager for AAA Northern New England. Vermont typically has prices around the national average and in the middle of the regional rates.

The primary reason for the difference in Vermont’s prices is the kind of gasoline sold in the state, experts said.

“Many of the states in the Northeast require reformulated gasoline with 10 percent ethanol, or some other variety of ’boutique’ blend. Vermont does not,” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service in Rockville, Md. “The wholesale prices for conventional, nonboutique gasoline have been as much as 30 to 40 cents per gallon under reformulated gasoline prices.”

That explanation makes sense to Shane Sweet, executive director of the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association. But he said retailers also have been “gun shy” about raising gasoline prices because the Legislature passed a law making it a crime to price-gouge after an emergency.

“There was concern that the government was going to regulate the cost of gasoline and that scared the hell out of the retailers,” Sweet said.