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The%20Exchange
Issue 9.47: Cunning Lingle
What Governor Linda Lingle said in a May 5, 2006 press release announcing her signing HB 3115:
by By Anthony Pignataro
May 18, 2006
“I am pleased that Hawai’i consumers will no longer be subject to the failed experiment to artificially control gas prices… [But] It is unfortunate that in repealing one failed experiment, the Legislature has approved another measure that attempts to fool the public into thinking gas prices should be lower than what is realistically possible.”
What she didn’t say:
At least the state Legislature tried to do something about high gas prices. Lingle’s solution has long been to let the oil companies charge whatever they wanted, even as they raked in billions of dollars. Chevron made $4 billion in the first three months of 2006. Four billion dollars—not in revenue, but in profit. And that was nothing compared to Exxon Mobil, which made $8.4 billion in profits in the first quarter. Even though it’s painfully obvious these record earnings have come at our expense, the federal government refuses to impose any kind of windfall profits tax on Big Oil. Laying down a gasoline price cap, even one as flawed as the one Lingle just eliminated, showed working people out here that government—or at least part of the government—cared about the situation.