Missing the cause of high gas prices

Legislation introduced in Olympia takes aim at Cascadia's high gas prices but misses a root cause: lack of competition.

Sen. Joe Zarelli, a Republican from southwest Washington, proposed a study to determine if the single pipeline that serves the area stretching from Vancouver to Eugene is adequate. One potential fixes, of course, is to relax permitting rules or reduce taxes to encourage construction of an additional pipeline.

It's no secret that gas costs more in this region than elsewhere in the U.S. and Canada. While supply and demand is part of the equation, close coordination of refining and distribution by oil companies is apparently a bigger factor. There don't appear to be any attempts to crack that.

UPDATE:

The original post above suggested that Sen. Zarelli advocates relaxed rules or reduced taxes to encourage construction of a new pipeline. Catherine Trinh of the Senate Republican Caucus emailed to say that the bill doesn't specifically mention either.

The exact language of the bill can be found here.

Comments

[Laura]

I don't really see the problem with high gas prices (granted I don't have a car, so this is much easier for me to say). It makes people think more about filling their tank, and (one would hope) consider taking public transportation instead of driving.

[brad]

My usual gas station is now charging $3.22 a gallon. I agree that rising prices will force people to think of alternatives (myself included). Unfortunately we don't have enough options because transit doesn't necessarily take you where you need to go.

I'd argue that more efficient transit is the answer to high gas prices.