House panels want to suspend gas cap

The Maui News
Wednesday, February 15, 2006

HONOLULU – Three state House committees on Tuesday recommended that the state suspend the state's gasoline wholesale price cap, as part of a bill that would upgrade monitoring of the oil industry in Hawaii.

The amendment would suspend the gas cap law beginning July 1 while setting up "greater transparency in monitoring the practices of the oil industry so that consumers are protected from unfair gas pricing," said House Majority Leader Marcus Oshiro, who introduced House Bill 3115.

But a key Senate leader, energy committee Chairman J. Kalani English said the Senate will not accept the House proposal.

After a six-hour session Tuesday reviewing a package of alternative-energy proposals, English said the committee rejected a section on suspending the gas cap.

"It was in the governor's energy package, which has elements that we can support," he said. "But we made it clear we were going to take that section (on the gas cap) out."

The state gas cap law establishes an upper limit on wholesale prices for gasoline based on an average of prices in three Mainland markets.

After it went into effect Sept. 1, isle prices soared because of price increases in the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina.

The House Energy and Environmental Protection; Judiciary; and Consumer Protection and Commerce committees approved Oshiro's bill.

Copyright © 2005 The Maui News.

Original article URL: http://www.mauinews.com/story.aspx?id=16965

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