Lawmakers urged to address gas prices
HARTFORD, Conn.—A coalition of gasoline retailers joined the attorney general Monday in calling on the state legislature to address the soaring cost of fuel.
The retailers are supporting a package of proposals, including one allowing franchises to offer discounts to customers who pay cash, that failed in the final hours of the regular legislative session.
"The state of Connecticut is burning, ladies and gentlemen, and we're standing and fiddling while the state is burning," said Rep. Corky Mazurek, D-Wolcott, who along with Rep. William Tong, D-Stamford, worked on the bill.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, standing outside a Hartford Shell station where the price for regular unleaded gas was $4.29 a gallon, said there's already consensus on the legislative package and therefore no reason not to act when lawmakers meet on June 11 in special session. He noted that Connecticut has the nation's highest average price per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline.
"We face a crisis in Connecticut that ripple beyond the gas pumps to our entire economy," said Blumenthal.
Blumenthal and the service station owners also are pushing for legislation that requires oil companies to provide the state with key information about their pricing.
Legislative leaders, who are calling rank-and-file members back to the Capitol to deal with a real estate transaction tax issue, have not said whether they would consider other legislation during the special session.
House Speaker James Amann, D-Milford, said the issue of high gas prices "is a global problem compounded by a failed national energy policy" and called on Blumenthal to investigate price disparities between different stations to see if there's price fixing or gouging.
"If true, as he suggests, this should be exposed and prosecuted. Legislation is not needed to accomplish this," Amann said.
Amann said both he and Gov. M. Jodi Rell, a Republican, have encouraged gas stations to offer cash discount plans. He questioned whether a bill is needed.
"What the attorney general recommends would only impact stations that are franchised and not owned by oil companies, and could only be enforced after existing contracts between a company and franchisee expire," Amann said.
Michael Fox, executive director of the Gasoline and Automotive Service Dealers of America, said motorists can save 16- to 20-cents-per-gallon under the cash discount plan, which bans oil companies from preventing their franchises from offering the savings.
Currently only Hess Corp. and about a dozen retailers in the state not affiliated with major brand stations, have been offering discounts for customers paying cash, he said.
"It's one of the ways that we can deal with these huge credit card fees that the credit card companies and the major oil companies are profiting on," Fox said.
He estimated that 20 to 25 percent of the approximate 1,000 gasoline retailers in Connecticut are having financial difficulties keeping their tanks full of gasoline -- especially regular unleaded -- because of the quickly fluctuating prices.
Fox said it costs between $30,000 and $40,000 for a station to fill up.
Retailers earn about 12 cents per gallon of gas before credit card and station expenses. He said there are some stations, especially in southwestern Connecticut, who have shut off the pumps because they can't afford to get them refilled.
Chris Rouse, who drives a van for the First and Last Bakery Cafe in Hartford, spent $100 Monday to fill up the vehicle. The tank had been a quarter full.
He said the business is feeling the pinch from high gasoline prices.
"We get a $15 delivery charge on the catering deliveries and it's been that way ever since we've opened," Rouse said. "Now, it's obviously another $1, $2 more expensive now, so I'm sure it's hurting. Everyone's hurting."
