Attention General Assembly! Don’t even think about it. Quit pretending state government can effect the price of gas, other than by adding taxes to it.
Hawaii went the whole hog of trying to actually control prices eight months ago, and now has abandoned that effort. It simply did not work. Worse, because wholesale price caps made supplies iffy — by definition mandating a below-market price that no supplier wanted to meet — retailers had to anticipate shortages. And how do retailers deal with short gas supplies? By raising prices to consumers.
It is called supply and demand and no one can repeal it. Not even Jim Black, Marc Basnight, and Might Mike Whatshisname.
