Hawaii consumers already pay the near highest gasoline taxes and highest cost for electricity in the nation, but lawmakers want to discourage fossil fuel use with higher taxes
By Frances Nuar, 3/17/2010 2:13:25 PM
The heads of Tesoro are considering whether to keep the Kapolei refinery open or cut back on operations and only import crude oil to Hawaii. Chevron, which manages the only other refinery in Hawaii, also is considering cutbacks. If either company eliminates or reduces its operations, economists say there would be immediate and noticeable cost increases at the gas pump and on Hawaii electricity bills. Hawaii consumers already pay the near highest gasoline taxes and highest cost for electricity in the nation.
With this industry already teetering economically, House members introduced House Bill 2421, a “barrel tax” or “carbon tax bill”, which will increase the tax on unrefined petroleum by $1 per barrel. Their reasoning, they want to discourage Hawaii’s “dependence” on fossil fuels through taxation and encourage renewable energy use and creation. (Aviation fuel is exempted).
The tax will go into the Environmental Response Revolving Fund, the Energy Security Special Fund, the Energy Systems Development Special Fund, and the Agricultural Development and Food Security Special Fund, rather than the state’s operating budget, but these funds are not protected, and could be raided at any time as is commonplace at the legislature when there is a budget shortfall as is the case this year with the $1.2 billion shortfall estimate.
