Oil Slick This could reverse a long-running trend in demographics: Gasoline now costs more per gallon in Phoenix than it does in Los Angeles. Any day now we can expect to see satellite images of a sparkling stream of headlights going West on I-10. Everyone knew that Hurricane Katrina would create ripples across the nation, but Arizona would seem to be an awful long way from the Gulf Coast. Why would our average prices increase by an astonishing 46 cents a gallon in just one weeek? Those debilitated refineries were responsible for but a fraction of the fuel that we use here in the Valley (most of our fix comes from dealers in California and Texas). Now there is talk of suspending the gasoline tax to provide drivers with a smidgen of relief - a terrible idea. We pay 18 cents on the gallon (a bargain compared to some other states), with the revenues spent on our various transportation projects. Removing the tax would push the price below the psychologically-important three-dollar mark, but that money would have to be made up eventually, and nobody foresees the price going back to pre-war levels anyway. Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano has applied for an EPA waiver on the "boutique blends" that we have to buy from West Coast refineries, supposedly cleaner-burning fuels that help reduce our little smog problem. The sad part about it is that most people would actually be willing to trade a few pennies per gallon for dirtier air than we already have. If there was ever a perfect control group to determine the precise point at which mass frustration turns into political upheaval, it would be Arizona. The fuse has been lit, and the problem is not being ignored by those few Democrats in power, such as Napolitano and Attorney General Terry Goddard. They both have spoken publicly about the need for anti-gouging laws in Arizona. Goddard: "We've heard of some extraordinary price increases out there. I won't go into detail, but they are clearly what, if we had a gouging statute, would be gouging." Napolitano: "I share people's frustration with the rapid and dramatic increase in gas prices that occurred in the wake of this development. I would not be surprised at all if we put a bill in on price gouging." That's nice and all, but those quotes are from two years ago, when Kinder Morgan's pipeline failed and all that Texas gasoline couldn't find its way past Tucson. Goddard is singing the same tune again, but he's no better with the details now than he was in 2003. And we are no closer to joining the good many states that already impose penalties on those cruel opportunists who have to sew their wallets shut to keep them from bursting at the seams. For all their bewilderment, there is little mystery as to how Arizona could go on for so long without so much as a legislative nod in the direction of consumer protection, only to see us get sucker-punched by outrageous prices again. Arizona is saddled with a Republican-led Congress, and Senate President Ken Bennett's family just happens to own a gasoline distributing company. While neither he nor his line of business can be held solely responsible for this recent price run-up, this is a link in a chain that would have to at some point be weakened by price-gouging laws. It would be against his vested interest to initiate or allow any such thing to get past his desk. That's why it hasn't happened, and isn't going to happen. The only question, then, is whether these pro-business conservatives will find themselves blown out the tailpipe in the 2006 elections, or if people like Bennett - who wants to run against Napolitano for the governor's office - will be further rewarded for siphoning money from family budgets. My guess is the former, here in Arizona and across the country. Think about it. What kind of person would rehire a lifeguard who just sits in his chair and lets people drown? Paul Heller 9/08/05 << back to the archives
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