House Votes 50 to 1 on Gas Cap Repeal

By Malia Zimmerman, HawaiiReporter.com

While Hawaii’s gas cap law is set to hike gasoline prices for the third time in three weeks, keeping Hawaii’s average unleaded gas prices well above mainland states at $2.71 per gallon, several lawmakers are imploring the father of the law, Sen. Ron Menor, to repeal it.

During the March 7 crossover, he said he’d consider their request, but that was the extent of his commitment.

That actually was a big step for opponents of the controversial, first-in-the-nation, gas cap law, which limits how much wholesale distributors can charge based on a predetermined price index set according to California, New York and the Gulf Coast. Up until the crossover, where the House and Senate exchanged bills that passed third reading, Menor refused to even consider the House Bill 3115, which would repeal, or at least suspend, the law.

Menor, the Senate Consumer Protection Chair, maintains the law, which went into effect September 1, is in fact working, and working admirably. He admits there are some flaws, but says the law should be tweaked, not repealed, as the majority of House lawmakers and many fellow Senators are now demanding.

As the Consumer Protection chair, Menor has the power to kill any attempts to repeal his law. But he agreed yesterday at the first legislative crossover, that he will hold a hearing on the House proposal seeking to suspend, and later remove, the gas cap.

That agreement likely saved Menor from an embarrassing plot by fellow Senators to force a vote on the House bill, with or without Menor’s support, which they could do with 13 votes on the floor of the Senate, even if Menor had not heard the bill in committee.

In private meetings before the crossover, Senate Democrats, especially those from neighbor island counties who have heard numerous complaints from drivers about the gas cap, pressured Menor to hear the House version.

Senate Democrats agreed to support Menor’s bill, which he says adjusts several portions of the current gas cap law, including lowering the wholesale cap by 18 cents per gallon, if Menor agreed to hear the House bill.

Sen. Shan Tsutsui, D-Maui, documented the promise that Menor made on the Senate floor, saying in a floor speech that he would vote for Menor’s Senate bill only because Menor promised he’d consider the repeal legislation.

Tsutsui’s comments came after Menor’s lengthily floor speech on why the gas cap is working and why it is lowering prices for consumers. Menor also disputed the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism’s most recent study released last week that says the cap is hiking prices by an average of $65 for each driver since being implemented, and has hike gas taxes by more than $50 million. Menor cited his own expert who says the study is flawed.

Menor offered his own revision to the gas cap law, through Senate Bill 2911, SD 1, which critics say would make the compilation of the price even harder to estimate. In the proposal, Menor adds Singapore to the mainland index cities; requires the Public Utilities Commission, which adjusts the price index each week, to disregard any week where there is a holiday; and adjusts various fees within the law.

Several Senators, both Democrats and Republicans, disputed Menor’s advocacy of the bill yesterday in their own floor speeches, including Senate Vice President Donna Mercado Kim, D-Kalihi, who says a survey of her constituents reveals more than 75 percent are opposed to the gas cap and want the law repealed.

Sen. Bob Hogue, D-Kaneohe, who like Kim also polled his constituents, says he received a similar response ratio of 3 to 1 wanting the gas cap repealed because it is raising, not lowering, gas cap prices.

Sen. Sam Slom, R-Hawaii Kai, who like three of four fellow Senate Republicans voted against Menor’s bill adjusting the gas cap formula, saying the law is a dismal failure and “One man’s dream, one man’s fantasy, one man’s delusion.” Slom asked Menor, “How long, how much more, must we continue to punish Hawaii’s consumers with this gas cap?”

No Senators, with the exception of the Menor, defended the current gas cap law, but all 20 voted to support Menor’s bill.

Even one of the primary House advocates and sponsors of the bill, Rep. Hermina Morita, D-Kauai, noted the bill’s failure. In a near whisper in a floor speech yesterday, she blamed the governor’s administration for poor implementation of the law, which caused it to fail. “The success of the gas cap is dependent on the implementation and at this time, the administration is not willing to make it work,” Morita says.

However, Rep. Bev Harbin, D-Kakaako, implored fellow lawmakers to “stay strong” and stand by gas cap law, because she was so proud to be part of a body that passed the first state gas cap law in the nation. Harbin was the only member of the House to vote against the House bill that suspends in 2007, and in 2008 repeals, the gas cap law.

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