Who'd've thunk it?
These people are idiots.
The first thing that happens when the government sets a price below the market is that prices RISE, not fall, because supplies of gasoline go elsewhere.
Suggested constitutional amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting wages, prices, rents, interest rates, or exchange rates.
Get the damn government out of the price fixing business.
If an amendment with that wording were ratified, you can rest assured that the liberals would suddenly discover the difference between "congress" and "state legislatures" and between "congress" and "city councils". Thus, the amendment would not have any bearing on wholesale gasoline price controls in Hawaii nor on rent controls in the Peoples Republics of Kalifornia and New York.
Maui? Maui?
Isn't that one of those Islands off the west coast?
Didn't they just pass a law to keep prices low?
Gasoline prices are falling pretty fast here in Hampton Roads.
“We cannot pass on the cost (now) without the taxes,” he said. “(But) our profit is the same.”
The cap is set by the state Public Utilities Commission, which bases the cap on a weighted average of wholesale prices in Los Angeles, the Gulf Coast and New York. Gas prices nationwide have skyrocketed because of an unstable world oil market and damage inflicted on the Gulf Coast region by Hurricane Katrina.
The gas cap applies to what wholesalers may charge gasoline retailers. Wholesalers need not increase their prices by the full amount, but the practice over the first two weeks appears to be that wholesalers have set prices up to what’s been allowed by the cap.
The cap does not include federal, state and county taxes or whatever markup the retailer may charge.
“I’m a customer also. I got to pay for my gas. I no more break either,” Murayama said. “You feel for the guys who got to work in Lahaina, Upcountry and far places.”
Murayama, who has been running the station on Puunene Avenue next to McDonald’s for 33 years, said: “The gas cap is meant for the state of Hawaii. We are not a state if we have different prices.”
Wholesale gas cap prices vary in eight different zones across the state, with Oahu having the lowest gas cap and Lanai having the highest.
“The government cannot even run itself correctly, and they are trying to run private entities?” Murayama said.
Talk about unintended consequences - now the price cap is a defacto price fix - socialists get socialism - you made your bed, now sleep in it.
If people think high prices are bad, they should imagine having to queue for it.
"Prices soaring in the land of government control of wholesale gas prices?"
Convenient how they set the price controls at the wholesale level. No? This way locals can still jack it as high as they want and keep the difference. And of course the shortages resulting from the fixed wholesale prices only serve to make retail price increases easier to sustain.
But of course I'm sure they never thought of that /sarc.
"But Pinto took the hit at the gas pump good-naturedly. “We need the gas, how we going to cruise?” he asked."
Lauifi said that every day customers come in to grumble. “I said, ’No grumble to me, call up to Linda Lingle.’ ”
love it...
When they secede from the union they can build a refinery on one of their beautiful islands. Problem solved.
In the mean time.$.$.$.$....
If government wanted to HELP gasoline or motor fuel prices, they'd remove their OWN restrictions that prevent new refineries from being built.
No sympathy. They live in Maui. They can spend the money they save on winter coats and snow shovels.
Here is some former resident insight - most people in Hawaii live on Oahu, so the laws are made for those people, with minor consideration for others. Because Oahu is less than 30 miles long and 20 miles wide, a gallon of gas gets most people a long way on their daily commute. I doubt that more than half the people travel over 25 miles on any given day. Plus most drive little cars and have for 30 years. Because the weather is great no heaters or AC units running for the average driver, which means they actually get 25 -30 miles to a gallon. Thus @ $4.00 they could spend $5 or less a day for gas still cheap by suburban standards.