Hawai'i gas prices highest in nation, study shows

Advertiser Staff and News Services

Hawai'i's gasoline prices have been dropping, but remain the highest in the nation.

According to the latest American Automobile Association's Daily Fuel Gauge Report, the price of unleaded in Hawai'i yesterday averaged $1.90 — 3 cents cheaper than a month ago and 12 cents down from a year ago.

But that's still higher than the national average price for unleaded, which is $1.20, down 34 cents from a year ago. People in Virginia are paying an average $1.09, while drivers in Atlanta can get a fill-up for 97 cents a gallon — about half the cost in Hawai'i.

Carol Thorp, a spokeswoman for AAA in California, said the automobile association's study determined that a lack of competition, whether it's individual gas stations or refineries, is what gives regions such as Hawai'i higher retail prices.

The pricing of gasoline "is one of the great mysteries known only to the oil companies," she said.

The study comes as Hawai'i oil companies and the state continued to present their cases in a summary judgment hearing in Honolulu yesterday.

Hawai'i filed a $2 billion antitrust lawsuit in 1998 accusing several oil companies of conspiring to artificially inflate Hawai'i gasoline prices and then conceal the conspiracy from investigators. All of the companies have denied the allegations.

The state's price-fixing suit against divisions of Chevron, Shell, Texaco, Unocal and Tosco Corp. is set to go to trial Feb. 5. It accuses the companies, which include the state's two refinery owners and all of its major gasoline wholesalers, of fixing gas prices and allocating market share among themselves from 1991 to 1998, in violation of antitrust laws.

BHP and Tesoro also were named in the original suit, but were dismissed from the case as part of a $15 million settlement.

Yesterday, lawyers for the oil companies again asked a federal judge to throw out the case, arguing the state cannot link Hawai'i's high gas prices to a statewide conspiracy by the oil companies. A hearing on the motion is expected to enter its third and final day today.

Lawyers for the oil companies argued that the state is trying to make people believe that the oil companies communicated with each other to fix prices, and agreed not to import gasoline, which would likely have driven prices lower.

But the companies denied the charge, saying it simply was not in their financial interest to import gasoline or start price wars.

The state believes that the oil industry earns large profits on its Hawai'i operations and the industry has tried to keep much of it confidential for competitive reasons.

U.S. District Judge Samuel King is not expected to rule immediately on the motion to dismiss the case, but he has urged the state and the oil companies to submit a plan to unseal hundreds of hours of depositions and thousands of pages of evidence by this afternoon.