State gas prices hit new high: $2.078
By Sean Hao
Advertiser Staff Writer
Gasoline prices statewide rose a penny to hit a high of $2.078 yesterday, according to a survey by AAA Auto Club.
It is the highest recorded price for self-serve regular unleaded since AAA started tracking Hawai'i gas prices 10 years ago.
Helping drive up the statewide average were new highs set in Honolulu and Maui. In Honolulu, the average price of self-serve regular rose from a previous high of $1.986 a gallon Monday to $1.993 yesterday. Prices on Maui rose 1 1/2 cents, hitting a peak of $2.339 a gallon.
Though not included in the AAA survey, gasoline prices in Kona on the Big Island, and on Lana'i and Moloka'i, typically run substantially higher than in Honolulu.
Hawai'i's high gas prices are typically pegged to several factors including a lack of wholesale-level competition, the state's geographic isolation and high taxes, land and labor costs.
However, Hawai'i gas prices have not backed down from peaks reached during the Iraq war earlier this year because of unusually high demand in Japan for the same kind of Indonesian crude that is refined in Hawai'i, said Fereidun Fesharaki, an energy expert at the East-West Center.
About 80 percent of the state's crude oil comes from the Far East. Added Japanese demand for the crude, which was caused by the closure of several nuclear power plants, should start to wane by early next year, resulting in lower local gas prices, Fesharaki said.
Prices at the pump aren't just rising in Hawai'i. Nationwide the average price of regular rose more than 2 cents to $1.609 a gallon yesterday. Prices in California rose more than 6 cents to $1.953.
Higher prices on the Mainland are a result of a pipeline break in Arizona and refinery problems in California and Washington state, said Carol Thorp, a AAA spokeswoman.
"Add to that it's the summertime travel season, so demand is high," she said. "All of these three things are driving up the prices."
Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8093.
