Hawaii's Gas Cap Law

[alohabear]

Now that it's been around for a month and prices are finally getting down, What do you think about the new gas cap law?

As far as for me I tend to go with this view on this morning's Advertiser website. It's a mix bag, because prices are still higher than the mainland. I just find it hard to put the price on fuel for my car on events that happen on the mainland, that and the fact that the prices aren't steady and change week after week. Most gas stations in Hilo don't change thier prices untill the week is half over .

[mel]

Re: Hawaii's Gas Cap Law

The free market should decide the prices and not have government put constraints on them like this awful gas cap. Despite our prices going lower, they are still higher than the mainland as pointed out by the previous poster and many others. Hawaii is the only state in the nation with such a socialistic practice.

[Moto]

Re: Hawaii's Gas Cap Law

With or without the gas cap law, the prices would have risen after Katrina, and now the prices would be dropping. That happened over the entire nation. I fully agree with Mel.

What happens if there's a problem in the east where we are reported to get most of our crude oil from. Prices will rise for our supply, but the refineries will have a cap locked on the price they can sell their gas for, based on the cost of oil in the west coast and the gulf coast. That means that they will be selling fuel at a loss. In the free enterprise system, I don't know of any company that can operate at a loss without any sort of compensation. That means that when that occurs, the refineries will probably slow down their productions so they could minimize their losses. That seems to make sense doesn't it? When that happens the supply of fuel to the population in Hawaii will drop significantly and yes our gas will be cheap, if we can get any.

When that happens, what will the lawmakers do? Force the refineries to produce more at a loss? Will they make the refineries drain their reserves? What happens if the problem is a little more than a short blip and we run out of our reserves? The Gas cap is just a bad idea, period. Government should not mess with free enterprise. Everytime they do, they mess things up more.

Then we had the scenario when the cap was allowing the refineries to charge more than they actually would have, right after Katrina hit and the lawmakers asked the refineries to not charge up to the cap. What was that all about? It's a cap, why wouldn't the refineries charge up to the cap. If the cap was too low, would they allow the refineries to charge over the cap? If so, what is the purpose of a cap?

As far as what the cap has done for us so far, it has brought back the gas lines. Everybody is playing the game and waiting until the lower prices takes effect and creating a line at the pump. Or if the price will go up, we have a 5 day warning and we can stock up on gas prior to the raise in prices. Has anyone enjoyed sitting in long lines again for their gas? If so you have our wonderful lawmakers to thank.

[Konaguy]

Re: Hawaii's Gas Cap Law

Even though gas prices are dropping, I still believe the gas cap should be repealed. It is bad news to have our prices tied to areas that constantly hurricane threat each year. Because of the gas cap now whenever a hurricane threatens the oil supply in Texas etc our prices are going to go up. Bear in mind we get our gas primarily from Alaska and Indonesia.

[beaker]

Re: Hawaii's Gas Cap Law

Aside from how the cap came into effect at the worst possible time, the most amazing thing is how brilliantly the gas wholesalers are playing the situation. They're yanking the prices around as much as possible in order to generate maximum profits and maximum annoyance for consumers. Rather than taking the blame for blatant price gouging, they actually have a vocal chorus of market capitalist true-believer stooges pointing fingers at the legislature instead, as if they were somehow forced to increase prices to the limit. They even had the balls to complain that the cap price was TOO LOW when it peaked, though their costs didn't rise at all. To top it all off, if the cap is repealed they'll know that politicians will never again have the political will to stand up to them, so they'll be able to jack up the prices even higher with no worry of penalty. Amazing.

[LikaNui]

Re: Hawaii's Gas Cap Law

Reviving this old thread because the topic is back in the news and also because of the new mandatory fuel gauges, illustrated below (and best viewed by clicking on the thumbnail to enlarge the picture):

[Miulang]

Re: Hawaii's Gas Cap Law

Good one Lika! Gas prices up here are catching up with you guys. I don't expect our prices to go down anytime soon. So if our prices go up to about $3.50/gallon regular this summer (that's what some pundits are predicting), I shudder to think how much it'll cost you guys by then, knowing that you will pay (gas cap or not) at least 20-30 cents more per gallon than we will.

Miulang

[bitachu]

Re: Hawaii's Gas Cap Law

I've got a couple of comments:

A. The gas cap purpose was never ultimately to make Hawaii's gas the cheapest in the nation
B. The intention of the gas cap law was to keep us in track with the pricing trends of the rest of the U.S.(example when prices go down in LA prices will go down in Hawaii. When they go up in NY then they go up here)
C. One of the main reasons why we have one of the highest gas prices is that we have the highest gas associated taxes. If we reduce gas taxes prices would be down.
D. Looking back in my memory, Hawaii has never had a long strech of time where gas prices consistently went down. So if everyone else in the nation is paying $3+ i'm sure we would be paying at least that.

I'm not saying the gas cap is perfect and I believe it should be adjusted, but I believe the gas cap has done what it was meant to do. Keep pricing trends in the same general direction as the mainland.

P.S. You can always check out www.honolulugasprices.com to see where the cheapest gas is. I think to many people fill up at the most expensive gas chains while they can drive maybe 1 mile out of the way to save like 5$ on the fillup.

[timkona]

Re: Hawaii's Gas Cap Law

I'm gettin 41 mpg in one car, and 30+ in the other.

The price of gas is a problem that can be easily solved by reducing usage.

Using less fuel should be considered patriotic. Supposedly, there is a war against a people who sell fuel for a living. Funny how very few Americans make any connection between gas pumps and flight lessons.

My favorite hypocrites are the mothers & fathers in the gas guzzlers with the yellow ribbons on the bumper, who have children being shot at in foreign nations with bullets purchased primarily with FUEL PROFITS.

Americans WILL suck the Arab oil pipe like a 2 bit hooker on nickel night. And we don't care if they spend the profits trying to kill our soldiers.

[Konaguy]

Re: Hawaii's Gas Cap Law

I drive a mid size truck (Ford Ranger). I get 20mpg city/24mpg highway
out of 2.3L V4 engine. Which is quite decent compared to other bigger
trucks. But nonetheless the rise in gas prices still hurt..luckily I live close
to work.

[bitachu]

Re: Hawaii's Gas Cap Law

Oh well the gas cap has been repealed. Do you think the gas prices will go up or down in honolulu?

Personally now that the gas companies have politicial leverage and excuses of reasons to keep prices high, they will drive the prices higher than with the cap. But when the mainland prices go down we will just keep on getting higher. And the gas companies now know none of our politicians will have the guts to put any legislation against high inflated gas prices. Its funny before the cap went into effect all the lobbyist were saying all these gas station owners would have to shut down.

Have you seen any gas stations closed down during the cap?

[Konaguy]

Re: Hawaii's Gas Cap Law

I always thought the gas cap was a bad idea from the get go. That being said
I'm not shedding a tear that it is gone. Government has no business in regulating
gasoline prices in my opinion.

We need to explore alternative energy and fuels to lessen our dependence on
oil. Also improving our business climate, along with reducing our staggering gasoline taxes would help too.

[Miulang]

Re: Hawaii's Gas Cap Law

Well, the Hawai'i gas prices did exactly what I expected them to do under the gas cap. It was meant as a cap on wholesale prices tied to a pretty stupid basket of Mainland wholesale gas prices as opposed to retail prices. You had the misfortune of having it start right in the middle of the Katrina disaster when refinery capacity was limited and prices were high due to a scarcity of fuel, and it's being repealed at a time when gas prices are at all time record highs up here due to jitters on the part of commodity traders over Iran.

Without the gas cap, your prices should not fluctuate as violently as they have since Sept. Up here, the price of gas was going up at least a penny a day until the last day or so with no end in sight (now the avg price of unleaded in this area is like $3.15/gal). You're paying more, but your prices should remain at a fairly constant rate, always higher than the Mainland, but no more than a penny or two change in either direction at any time. At least for household budgeting purposes, it's nice knowing how much that tank of gas is going to cost you every time you fill up, as exorbitant as that cost might be.

Miulang

[tutusue]

Re: Hawaii's Gas Cap Law

[...]At least for household budgeting purposes, it's nice knowing how much that tank of gas is going to cost you every time you fill up, as exorbitant as that cost might be.

Miulang

I've solved the problem! I fill up as soon as the tank shows half full. The price is the same as before all of this madness began! Of course, I don't admit to myself that I fill up twice as often nor do I bother to print out a Quicken report showing exactly what I've spent on gas. Instead, I prefer to live in my own little fairy tale world!

[Linkmeister]

Re: Hawaii's Gas Cap Law

I don't think 7 or 8 months was enough time to make a fair assessment of whether it worked or not, particularly when it took effect during Katrina's aftermath.

How foolish are our newscasters, though? I think every single story covering this said something like "but will the prices go down as a result of its elimination?"

Hello? A price cap is meant to keep prices from going up. Why would anyone suspect that removing the cap would allow them to go down, which they could have done at any time under the cap?

Brains. Our local TV news folks seem to have checked them at the anchor desk.