Hawaii Gas Prices Go Up in Another Double-Digit Increase - Highest in The Nation

Gasoline prices increased by double-digits in some areas over the past week. The statewide average Thursday is $4.25 a gallon, ten cents more than a week ago. It is the highest gas rate in the country.

AAA Hawaii's Weekend Gas Watch said the gas price increase is as an ongoing result of market uncertainty about the effect of worldwide events on fuel supplies. At the same time last year in Honolulu, prices were 79 cents cheaper.

"As has been the case for much of 2011, unrest in the Middle East and Northern Africa and the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami has continued to drive the markets during the past week," said AAA Hawaii Regional Manager Diane Peterson.

www.hawaiinewsnow.com...

it is even more expensive here on the Big Island, current average for regular 87 octane is $4.66, $4.75 for premium and i don't know anyone paying $4.85 for supreme.

www.hawaiigasprices.com...

even more alarming and burdensome is the 43% rate increase in our shipping fuel surcharges...

Rising fuel prices are once again boosting the cost of shipping goods to Hawaii just as consumers are adjusting to the shock of $4-a-gallon gasoline.

Matson Navigation Co. said it will raise its fuel surcharge on shipments from the mainland to 43.5 percent on May 1, the highest level since it broke out fuel costs as a separate item on customers’ bills more than 10 years ago.

www.staradvertiser.com...

remember the science project that began with putting a frog in hot water and it immediately jumped out. then they put it in cool water and slowly, gradually turned up the heat until the frog was cooked. we are the frogs in this project.

So you lot are "slowly" getting closer to the UK pricing ...


UK 1 Gallon = About £5.86

reply to post by bladdersweat


Part of the plan I believe to try and make a case to get us off of foreign oil..a crappy one at that but lets see if we start drilling more in the US now..at a minimum we should at least build some more refineries to process the oil..it looks like the construction or thought of nuclear power plants is off of the table...wind turbines are hardly efficient unless they are running 24 seven which a great deal of them don't..Solar??? We have plenty of coal and natural gas..what shall we do?

How many people that voted for Obama, would do it again, if they knew gas prices would double under his regime....errr I mean administration?

The answer is so obvious, we need more drilling in the Gulf, in ANWR and anywhere available. This should have been done long ago.

many here in hawaii speak of the 'Jones Act' that continues to add economic burden. if you don't know about the Jones Act, it is a federal statute law that governs all maritime commerce activities. some key points from the wiki entry follows.

The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (P.L. 66-261) is a United States Federal statute that regulates maritime commerce in U.S. waters and between U.S. ports.

Section 27, also known as the Jones Act, deals with cabotage (i.e., coastal shipping) and requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried in U.S.-flag ships, constructed in the United States, owned by U.S. citizens, and crewed by U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents. The purpose of the law is to support the U.S. Maritime industry.

Critics note that the legislation results in costs for moving cargoes between U.S. ports that are far higher than if such restrictions did not apply. In essence, they argue, the act is protectionism.

Critics also contend the Jones Act has caused job-losses in the U.S.shipbuilding industry because vessels built in the U.S. are more expensive than those built elsewhere. Consequently, U.S. shipbuilders are priced out of the international market for merchant ships. A 2001 U.S. Department of Commerce study indicates that U.S. shipyards build only 1 percent of the world's large commercial ships. Few ships are ordered from U.S. shipyards except for cabotage. U.S. operators of ships in cabotage have an economic incentive to continue operating old vessels rather than replace them with relatively high cost vessels built in the U.S. The report concluded that the lack of United States competitiveness stemmed from foreign subsidies, unfair trade practices, and lack of U.S. productivity.

In June 2010, Sen. John McCain said that this law restricts shipping and raises costs to consumers in Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and Guam.

"The Jones Act also adds a real, direct cost to consumers – particularly consumers in Hawaii and Alaska. A 1988 GAO report found that the Jones Act was costing Alaskan families between $1,921 and $4,821 annually for increased prices paid on goods shipped from the mainland. In 1997, a Hawaii government official asserted that Hawaii residents pay an additional $1 billion per year in higher prices because of the Jones Act. This amounts to approximately $3,000 for every household in Hawaii.’”

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by Carseller4


Umm, Obama isn't fully to blame here.

Gotta love the blind hatred for the man on this site.

If you read the original post, it will cite unrest in the Middle East, North Africa AND the EQ/Tsunam in Japan as factors, not Obama.

reply to post by The Sword


correct, the last time hawaii saw fuel prices go this high was post katrina in 2008, under Bush 2, take a look at this graph that charts fuel cost over the last four years.

www.HawaiiGasPrices.com...

Does Hawaii have their own refining capability, or does all the gasoline have to be shipped in by tanker ships?

2nd line.

reply to post by truther357


whats a matter, have a bad vacation here? get pounded by the locals for ignorant speech? hey why don't you post a copy of YOUR birth certificate to prove to all of us that you really are a U.S.A. AST user, for all we know you're just some pakistani government shill.

and you don't have to worry about just hawaii being owned by the chinese, china is the second largest holder of U.S. public debt at about $350 billion, first is japan at $644 billion


Just who owns the U.S. national debt?
www.msnbc.msn.com...

Looks like I answered my own question.

Tesoro runs a petroleum refinery in Hawaii, and might be shipping quite a bit of it's output to Japan.

Oil refiners rally after quake

Energy stocks are turning out to be the big winners in Friday’s stock market – and they’re managing do this while oil futures fall for a fourth straight day. Some of the gains may be related to expectations that some refiners, such as Tesoro, could benefit from more Japanese demand after an 8.9 earthquake shuttered some of the country’s nuclear infrastructure.

Tesoro operates a refinery in Hawaii, which is accessible to Asian markets. Japan is expected to draw on more crude oil, liquefied natural gas, fuel oil and coal to make up for the power that typically comes from several nuclear plants shuttered for safety concerns, note analysts at J.P. Morgan and Tudor Pickering.

reply to post by Ferris.Bueller.II


we have two large refinement centers here, chevron and tesoro

www.tsocorp.com...

a large part of the problem here is our power plants are diesel turbine generators. it is cheaper for our state to pay the EPA clean air act fines that to update our technology.

reply to post by bladdersweat

a large part of the problem here is our power plants are diesel turbine generators. it is cheaper for our state to pay the EPA clean air act fines that to update our technology.

I would've figured Hawaii would be a trailblazer on converting over to green energy.

reply to post by Ferris.Bueller.II


reality is we just don't have the land space and with that the bludgeoning cost of land here, unless we made an ingenious offshore floating solar island or something.

WE ARE DOOM,the gas prices aare killing the households economys,we are paying .89 cts more since October last years.

Originally posted by rocha123
WE ARE DOOM,the gas prices aare killing the households economys,we are paying .89 cts more since October last years.

In reality the problem is not the gas prices, it's the unsustainable mobility habits. We need a society where transportations by car aren't necessary because as several studies has concluded: "The age of cheap oil is over". Everyone needs to put pressure on the politicians to put peak oil and a transition to a sustainable society on the agenda.