Beware, oil companies may pack up and leave

Be careful about calling for a Federal Trade Commission investigation of gas gouging (Editorial, Oct.3). Nothing will prevent the oil companies from leaving Hawaii high and dry. The problem is not the oil companies alone. Much of the blame can go to government regulations (i.e., taxes, gas cap).

When will everyone learn that socialism does not work? The market may not be the best, but it is the best we have now when it comes to economics.

My personal solution to the high price of gas was to invest in a bike. I am getting fed up with gas prices going up and down like a yo-yo.

Save your money and fill up with regular

If you would like to save a few plates lunches every time you fill up, just pump "regular." The majority of automobiles only need regular grade gasoline. Premium is for high compression engines. Regular's octane rating of 87 is actually more flammable than the 92 octane rating and if used in engines with compression ratios of 12 to 1 or 16 to 1, knocking will occur. The knocking is due to premature ignition of the fuel mixture due to the high temperature caused by high compression as it ignites on the upstroke before the spark plug has a chance to ignite the fuel at top-dead-center to give you power on the down stroke.

There is no such thing as premium, supreme or high test that makes one's car better. It's only better advertising and marketing that makes you think you're doing the best thing for your car by buying premium. So if you continue to buy premium when your automobile doesn't require it, you are only subsidizing the cost of that fuel for those who really need to use it.

Am I a scientist? No, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night.

[ QUOTABLE ] "I was very impressed. Sumitono obviously built a great system here. The way they went about it, the criteria that they set, are many of the things I was looking for." Mayor Mufi Hannemann After a morning ride on the waterfront rail transit system built by Sumitomo Corp. in Tokyo. Sumitomo is interested in building a rail system in Honolulu.

How could Harbin's vetting get botched?

Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Sept. 28: "Awana said he asked the Sheriff's Office to check Harbin's criminal history and the deputy sheriff checked by putting both Harbin's present name and Social Security number into the criminal justice data center computer. Awana acknowledged that if the deputy had checked under Harbin's former name, Endrizal or just entered the Social Security number, the criminal background would have come up."

Are we to believe that when Harbin's present name AND Social Security number were put into the computer all her AKA's did not appear?

Or are we to believe that the deputy sheriff goofed?

Auwe!

Ewa road widening seems never-ending

It's unfortunate that in one of the fastest-growing communities in the state with the greatest need for road building our needs are being ignored. The widening of Fort Weaver Road into Ewa Beach from four to six lanes has been discussed for at least eight years and was finally started in 2004, resulting in widening to three lanes in the St. Francis Hospital area by 2005.

Now the project has come to a complete stop, three miles short of completion. The Department of Transportation says the designer of the new roadway went bankrupt, forcing phase two from Laulaunui to Geiger Road to be placed out for new bids and delaying the project by more than 18 months.

How is it that DOT can level an entire mountain in Kailua, retile the Wilson Tunnel and add a mile to the Zipper Lane in less than eight months while the people in Ewa Beach won't see their project even re-started for two years? Our Ewa lawmakers, Rep. Rida Cabanilla and Sen. Willie Espero, have been pushing for a tunnel under Pearl Harbor. How can they ask for a pie in the sky project when they can't even get a simple road-widening project completed?

I ask Governor Lingle and DOT Director Rod Haraga to expedite the widening of Fort Weaver Road.