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House panel would stall gasoline price caps law

Any relief Hawaii motorists expect from high gasoline prices as of July 1 would have to wait under a bill approved Friday by a House committee.

It calls for delaying implementation of gasoline price caps until July 1, 2005, giving lawmakers and administrators more time to refine what would be the only such law in the nation.

The Lingle administration had urged repeal of the law passed in 2002, or at least to delay it for two years.

The House Committee on Energy and Environmental Protection forwarded the Senate-passed bill to the Commerce and Consumer Committee where Chairman Ken Hiraki, D-Kakaako-Downtown, said he agreed to the changes.

Another change would eliminate the retail price cap, leaving only a wholesale price cap. That addresses complaints from service station owners, primarily on the neighbor islands, that the retail cap could drive them under.

The 2002 law set to take effect July 1, unless changed, would base Hawaii's retail gasoline prices on West Coast prices, but opponents noted that twice since the law passed that could have seen Hawaii prices go higher than they did.

The Senate's version of the bill made a change to fix the Hawaii wholesale price to a national average.