As the price of regular unleaded gas in Wailuku, Maui approaches four dollars a gallon and goes above that in other parts of the state a lawmaker is pushing a bill that would require oil companies and gas suppliers to open their books for public inspection.

Sen. Ron Menor, the democratic chairman of the Energy and Environment Committee, believes more transparency would put pressure on energy companies to lower fuel prices.

“I'm really pushing for a law that's going to require the gas suppliers, particularly in the neighbor islands, to disclose more information about how they are setting their prices,” Menor said during an interview with Khon2. “If they're earning excessive profits than consumers will be able to hold them accountable.”

The Western States Petroleum Association says Menor's bill would require oil companies to disclose proprietary information that would damage the industry.

The legislation (SB 2630, SD2) has already passed the Senate and is now being considered in the House.

The bill would require nearly every segment of the industry to disclose the cost of doing business in Hawaii. Oil and gas companies would be required to file a report every six months with the Public Utilities Commission which includes such items as the cost of crude oil, refinery operating expenses, marketing operating expenses, and corporate overhead.

“We need to have some law in place to keep the oil companies and gas suppliers in check,” Menor said emphatically. “The main reason why we have such high (gas) prices is because of the huge profits that the oil companies and gasoline suppliers are making off the backs of consumers.”

Menor was the main proponent of Hawaii’s gas cap law, a price control measure that set wholesale prices based on market averages on the West Coast, Gulf Coast and New York. The law took effect in September of 2005 but was suspended by lawmakers less than a year later in May of 2006 after public perception that the law wasn’t working.

“If we can't get pricing regulation than we need to force the oil companies to make more of their pricing information available to the public,” said Menor, who still supports gasoline price controls.

Sen. Sam Slom, an East Oahu republican who also heads the advocacy group Small Business Hawaii, says the government is the main culprit when it comes to soaring energy prices. He points to high federal, state and county taxes, which reach $.66 cents per gallon in Hawaii, and too much regulation of the fuel industry. Slom says there is also unwillingness on the part of government to go after domestic sources of oil.

“Yes we should be looking at wind and solar and all these things,” said Slom, “but we shouldn't close the door on more drilling where we know we have absolute reserves.”

The republican believes nuclear energy is another option to reduce Hawaii’s dependency on foreign oil, but the idea is automatically shot down by lawmakers and environmentalist.

“We have these opportunities that would reduce the cost or at least slow the accelerating costs (of gas) and we refuse to do that,” he said. “That's suicidal - that's crazy.”

Petroleum Industry Reporting Bill

Andrew may be reached at apereira@khon2.com or ph. 591-4263.