THIRTEEN members of the House of Representatives have pre-filed a measure that seeks to lower gasoline prices in the commonwealth.
H.B. 13-132, or the Gasoline Prices Act of 2002, is authored by Rep. Andrew S. Salas, R-Saipan, and co-sponsored by 12 other lawmakers. It would subject to inspection all gasoline and special fuels “sold, offered or exposed” for sale to determine if these products “are in conformity” with the specifications set by the Department of Finance.
The bill would not allow a producer or refiner of petroleum products to open a major, secondary or unbranded retail service station in the CNMI and operate it with a subsidiary company or a commissioned agent.
The station will only be operated by an independent retail service station dealer which should be extended uniform allowances, equipment rentals and products by every producer, refiner and/or wholesaler of gasoline and special fuels.
Salas, chairman of the House Committee on Commerce, said they came up with the legislation to “eliminate anti-competitiveness and destructive operations within the wholesale and retail gasoline market created by service stations directly operated by producers and refiners.”
He said that based on the Legislature’s findings, the number of independent service station dealers “has vastly diminished in numbers” since May 1994 “due to anti-competitive forces in the marketing of gasoline”
Also, for too long, Salas said consumers in the CNMI have been conditioned to believing that the high cost of gasoline is a result of the island’s geographic location and the high cost of importing fuel to the commonwealth.
“Gasoline distributors attribute the CNMI’s high gasoline prices to the lack of economies of scale, the high cost of operating in the CNMI, the myriad of government regulations and the cost of buying and shipping gasoline from Singapore, while gasoline consumers in the U.S. mainland pay as much as $1 per gallon less than what the CNMI consumers now pay, even with the higher mainland gasoline taxes,” Salas said.
