Gas price cap
law targeted

Lingle says she favors seeing
suppliers’ costs publicized,
and will again seek repeal

Just like last session, Gov. Linda Lingle says next year will bring another attempt by her administration to repeal the only law in the country that allows a state to regulate gasoline prices.

"We think price caps are a bad idea," Lingle said last week.

But if not this, then what?

Legislators who approved the price caps on wholesale gasoline prices say the governor has offered few other solutions to soaring prices at the pump in Hawaii.

"The only thing she has offered is transparency," said House Energy Chairwoman Hermina Morita (D, Hanalei-Kapaa).

Transparency refers to listing publicly all of the costs that go into gasoline pricing in Hawaii. For competitive reasons, oil companies do not release such information and have lobbied against such proposals in the past.

Lingle argues that making that information public would help the state and consumers determine whether oil companies are gouging motorists, as consumer advocates have alleged, and give potential competitors the information they would need to decide whether to enter the Hawaii market.

"If it did reveal that large profits were being made ... it would create competition because now people would know they could make a certain level of profit," Lingle said.

But just publishing the information is not enough, lawmakers said.

"For the most part, we all agree that transparency does help in changing behavior," Morita said. "What she didn't propose is the hammer, and what happens when prices get out of line.

"Are we just going to stand and watch from a distance? If she comes out with a better proposal on how to have this hammer over the oil companies to ensure that pricing is fair and reasonable, then yes, we can take a look at it. So far, she hasn't offered any kinds of solution in protecting Hawaii's consumers."

Lingle criticized the logic. "I think what you described is ready-fire-aim," she said. "They're saying, yes, we need the information because then we have to do something, but they don't have the information. They went ahead and did something first.

"What we're saying is let's at least understand what the issue is and what the problem is or what has caused the problem."

Senate Consumer Protection Chairman Ron Menor says the mere posting of the maximum wholesale prices each week is a significant step in bringing more transparency.

"It is going to make more information about the oil industry available to the public than has otherwise been the case," said Menor (D, Mililani).