EDITORIAL
Gas suit settlement looks like a letdown

Terms of the settlement from Hawai'i's $2 billion antitrust suit alleging the companies fixed gasoline prices haven't yet been made public.

So we might be pleasantly surprised. But at the moment, we're getting a sinking feeling.

When the suit was brought in October 1998, Spencer Hosie, a principal in the San Francisco law firm of Hosie, Wes, Sacks & Brelsford, which led the state's case against the oil companies, said it was the "cleanest, strongest case I've ever seen."

Now what we think we're hearing is a setup for a big disappointment. Gov. Ben Cayetano, in particular, has talked as if the settlement — far from recompensing drivers for paying the nation's highest gasoline prices — is allowing the state to escape without losing its shirt.

Cayetano has said that senior Federal Judge Sam King had "pretty much sent the message that he did not want the issues to go before the jury," pushing mediation instead. Indeed, people familiar with the case said they thought Judge King may have let it be known that he was leaning toward throwing out all or portions of the state's case.

Mainland experts have told us that no price-fixing case against oil companies has been easy; others have also ended in settlements far less than originally sought.

Perhaps more than money, the suit might still succeed if it brings about different behavior on the part of those who make and market gasoline in Hawai'i. But that, too, seems doubtful.

If all we end up with is a few million dollars in the state highway fund (plus a few more million dollars in the pockets of lawyers), and business as usual on the part of gasoline companies, then the suit can hardly be said to have been worth the time, the expense — and the hype.

What happens next? The ball is in the court of the Legislature, experts tell us. But there's nothing the Legislature can do today that it couldn't have done four years ago.

Hawai'i thus awaits the details of the announced settlement with great anticipation, and more than a little skepticism. And we are still without an adequate explanation for our trend-setting high gasoline prices.