Kaua‘i’s gas prices aren’t that high compared to Mainland prices, once the price of doing business in paradise is deducted, Brian Barbata of Senter Petroleum told the Kauai Rotary Club Friday afternoon. Barbata was hosted by Roger Cable, the Kaua‘i
Kaua‘i’s gas prices aren’t that high compared to Mainland prices, once the price of doing business in paradise is deducted, Brian Barbata of Senter Petroleum told the Kauai Rotary Club Friday afternoon.
Barbata was hosted by Roger Cable, the Kaua‘i manager for Senter Petroleum. He presented weekly tallies of the price of regular gas at Kaua‘i stations, as well as at gas stations across the state and on the West Coast and other areas of the Mainland, to back up his theory.
He said the gas cap legislation on the books in Hawai‘i would be detrimental to the economy of the Islands, and would not solve the problem of what he said were perceived to be high gas prices as compared to the Mainland.
“Now most Legislators want it off their back,” Barbata said he’s concluded after numerous meetings with both Democratic and Republican members of the Legislature held to address the gas cap.
The gas cap, mandated during the administration of Gov. Ben Cayetano, is in the process of being postponed in the Legislature. It was to have gone into effect this year, and would be tagged to certain Mainland gas prices, and has been supported as a way to give Hawai‘i consumers a fair price at the gas pump.
Barbata said the “root question” to the gas cap controversy is: “are gas prices in Hawai‘i too high?”
Barbata said that after careful research he’s concluded that the basic cost of gasoline on Kaua‘i and other Hawaiian Islands isn’t out of line with Mainland prices.
To back up his argument he distributed a chart of posted gas prices for regular gas across Hawai‘i and at West Coast cities and other locations on the Mainland.
He said once the county tax on gas on Kaua‘i of 57 cents per gallon, the extra cost of shipping oil to Hawai‘i and factoring in about 5-7 percent extra per gallon for the higher cost of doing business in Hawai‘i, he found that gas prices in Honolulu were just under the national average of $1.31 per regular gallon as of this week, and that Kaua‘i prices for regular gas were about 8 cents higher than that figure.
He said in California, state laws mandate what type of gasoline can be sold, and some of the blends are produced only in that state. This causes spikes in prices when supplies run short.
Barbata warned that implementing the gas cap in Hawai‘i could lead to a trend of putting price caps on real estate and other items. It would also be a negative to Hawai‘i’s attempts to lure business to the Island, as it would be the only gas cap enacted in the United States.
TGI Editor Chris Cook can be reached at ccook@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 227).
Kaua‘i’s ‘sign’ gas prices compared to other locations
Average street price (Regular) vs. real cost once taxes, freight, Hawai‘i cost factors are deducted:
Kaua‘i $2.23 – $1.39
Honolulu $2.03 – $1.28
Maui $2.38 – $1.47
Hilo $2.10 – $1.30
Kona $2.30 – $1.42
San Diego $2.08 – $1.63
Seattle $1.78 – $1.32
Las Vegas $2.09 – $1.64
San Francisco $2.08 – $1.63
USA Average – $1.74 – $1.31
Source: Brian Barbata, Senter Petroleum, Honolulu (includes reports from www.gasbuddy.com, http://www.gaspricewatch.com, AAA, API and other sources as of March 22, 2004).
