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Florez calls for gas price regulation
| Tuesday, May 27 2008 9:24 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 28 2008 7:25 AM
Fran Florez wants the state’s Public Utility Commission to regulate gasoline prices, and she’s making it an issue as she runs for the Assembly.
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Florez said the state can at least make oil companies explain why the cost of gas has spiraled so high.
“We’re just asking for justification,” she said.
The proposal would require an amendment to the state constitution, and would let the state regulate gas prices the same way it regulates electricity and the trucking industry, she said.
She said gas companies aren’t competing on price, but instead keep an eye on each other and peg their prices to within a few cents of each other. The result is that Californians are paying world market prices for gasoline that’s drilled, refined and sold here.
Florez, a Democrat from Shafter, decided to bring gas prices up as the first issue in her campaign for the 30th District Assembly seat.
She held a news conference to announce her proposal and launched a commercial.
“This is exactly why I’m running for the Assembly,” said her opponent, Hanford Republican Danny Gilmore, when he heard about the proposal. “Clearly my opponent doesn’t remember the fiasco in the Carter era where we tried price controls.”
He pointed to the taxes that are part of the price of gasoline as a more appropriate place to start.
“This sounds like political posturing to me,” he said. “I don’t think it’s the right road to go down.”