Bill Would Let PUC Regulate Gasoline
From a Times Staff Writer
latimes.com
Excerpt:
State Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana) reintroduced legislation to give the California Public Utilities Commission the power to regulate gasoline.
California Watches Hawaii's Effort to Cap Gasoline Prices
By Elizabeth Douglass, Times Staff Writer
latimes.com
Excerpt:
This week, state Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana) will reintroduce legislation that would give the California Public Utilities Commission the power to regulate gasoline prices.
"Hawaii is taking the absolutely correct approach to the gasoline industry," said Dunn, a strident critic of energy companies. "The more states that follow Hawaii's lead, the sooner we'll be able to force this industry to get back to normal market behavior that benefits the consumer but also allows them a reasonable profit."
States consider gas regulation
freep.com
Excerpt:
Michigan, Oregon, California, New York and Connecticut have debated the merits of regulating the price of gas. The clamor spread across the northern border Sunday, when the head of Canada's New Democratic Party called for it.
The call echoes broadly.
"It's very clear to us that gas prices need to be regulated. We really need to step back and recognize that like electricity, gasoline is too vital to the economy to be left in the hands of these corporations that have been gouging us," said Doug Heller, executive director of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights in Los Angeles, a consumer advocacy group.
The Service Station Dealers of America agrees, saying wholesalers are limiting competition and thus pushing prices higher.
"Fuel is basically a commodity, almost something that should be regulated by the public services commissions, because there is no other product out there that so many consumers depend on," said Paul Fiore, the group's executive vice president.
The American Petroleum Institute, a trade group that represents the oil and natural gas industry, thinks regulating prices would bring disaster.
"That would be the stupidest thing on Earth we could do. It would throw us back into the 1970s," said John Felmy, the institute's chief economist. |
