LEGISLATURE 2006
Senate OKs gas cap changes
The Senate passed a bill that would suspend the state's price cap on wholesale gasoline prices but allow the controls to be reinstated if prices climb too high.
The proposal by primary sponsor Sen. Ron Menor didn't satisfy critics, such as Sen. Sam Slom, who called the modifications "an abomination."
"This is fake, fake, fake. People believe this suspends the gas cap, which it does not," said Slom (R, Diamond Head-Hawaii Kai).
The Senate yesterday voted to move the modified gas cap bill, House Bill 3115, back to the House with only four of the five GOP members voting against it.
Meanwhile, in the House, lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a measure to suspend the gas cap and in its place adopt oversight measures aimed at ensuring fair-pricing practices by oil companies. If the so-called "transparency" measures prove successful, the gas cap law would then be repealed.
Leaders have balked at Menor's proposal, saying the mechanism that would bring price caps back for two weeks at a time could be too unwieldy to implement.
Slom praised the House action, saying it "has the guts to say we made a mistake."
In a speech aimed at Menor, who is running for the 2nd Congressional District, Slom said senators shouldn't listen "to congressional wannabes."
Menor shot back that Slom was spreading misinformation "in his zeal to fatten the oil companies."
Meanwhile, Menor's plan would allow the public to compare oil prices against calculations of what they would be if the gas cap were in effect.
"It will allow the oil companies to set prices as high or as low as they want," Menor said.
The gas cap issue is expected to be handled in a House-Senate conference committee before the Legislature adjourns early next month.
After the debate on the Senate floor, Menor said the bill faced a new round of criticism from gasoline wholesalers, who claim they will be forced out of business and that their gas stations will close if the gas cap isn't repealed outright.
Menor said those charges "are just not credible."
"They made the same dire predictions about gas shortages and the refinery being forced to close when we were to implement our existing law," Menor said. "This is just more misinformation coming from the petroleum industry in an attempt to derail a law that has forced them to lower prices."
Star-Bulletin reporter B.J. Reyes contributed to this report.
Expanded abortion law passes state Senate
The state Senate passed a bill to modify Hawaii's abortion law.
House Bill 1242 would repeal the residency requirement for women seeking abortions and allow abortions to be performed in clinics or a physician's office.
The Senate's five GOP members, along with Democratic Sens. Clarence Nishihara and Norman Sakamoto, voted against the bill.
Critics yesterday said the bill would make Hawaii "an abortion mill," but supporters said the bill simply deletes old language from the 1970 bill that has long been ruled unconstitutional.
The bill's supporters also said that if the U.S. Supreme Court ever ruled to overturn the right to an abortion under Roe v. Wade, the Hawaii law would permit abortions to continue.
Star-Bulletin staff