Disappeared News

People in Hawaii must live on an island or something. While the Mainland press places blame more and more where it belongs, on the oil companies, headlines in Hawaii blame our groundbreaking gas cap legislation instead.

A typical headline here is "Gas-cap price will jump 13¢" while on the Mainland, the Los Angeles Times reports that the President is at last calling for a probe into possible price gouging and is talking about a rollback of tax breaks for oil firms. Yes, our "oil president."

Here's what the Mainland is talking about:

Several GOP senators called for a crackdown on what they described as windfall profits in the oil industry, and proposed taking a new look at antitrust laws that they said were outdated. . . .

Florida's Republican attorney general said Tuesday that he had initiated an investigation into potential "monopolistic behavior" by companies such as Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips.

Elsewhere, people are taking action. This is from an article in the San Antonio Express News:

Bee County leaders urging boycott of Exxon Mobil

JEORGE ZARAZUA, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS - This week, Bee County became the first in the state, possibly the country, to pass a resolution
asking motorists to boycott fuel pumps beginning Monday. County elected
officials said they would ask others in the state to follow suit. . .

The resolution adopted Monday echoed the nation's anxiety over skyrocketing fuel prices that have now topped $3 in some states. Last week, average prices at the pump climbed 13.1 cents to $2.91 a gallon, according to the Energy Department. . .

The boycott call is targeted only at Exxon Mobil gasoline until
retailers agree to drop the price to $1.30 a gallon. Martinez said he's
especially miffed about reports that former Exxon Mobil CEO Lee Raymond
received a retirement package worth $400 million. The median annual
income here is about two-thirds of the state average of almost $40,000.
Many can't even afford to travel to nearby hospitals for treatment, he
said.

But are we with it in Hawaii? Some of us are. But not our representatives in the House, who are stubbornly pushing for a repeal of the gas cap.

Now, maybe those who are tired of being gouged at the pump and support improving the gas cap law would have an easier time of it if the newspapers quit convincing people that their problems are caused by the law itself.

The rest of the country is moving toward action against the oil and energy companies, which have turned in record profits this last quarter, including Exxon Mobile, which earned more money than any other corporation ever. We're bound on taking action against the lawmakers who are trying to save us money! Go figure.

Our daily papers might take a hard look at what they are doing by pounding the gas cap instead of the gas companies.

I can understand the behavior of our legislators, considering all the campaign contributions they are receiving. This is gonna be a great argument for Voter Owned Elections before it is all over. But how do our daily papers explain themselves?

Update: Thanks to the Star-Bulletin headline writer, whoever you are, for today's headline Cost of gas rises amid debate and for the internal headline Rising Gas Prices.