Arizona Republicans announce plan aimed at lowering summer gas prices

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — Arizona Republicans gathered at the Arizona Capitol Wednesday morning to present legislation they say will lower gas prices in the future. This proposal strictly focuses on the gasoline blend sold in Maricopa County, Representative Alex Kolodin said during the press conference.

“We beleive these common sense proposals will save our citizens anywhere from 30 cents to a dollar per gallon,” he said. The bill, to be introduced in the next legislative session, would allow the sale of 8 different fuel blends, opening the free market to influence the price of the blended fuel.

Senator Justine Wadsack, the bill sponsor, said the hardship she’s heard the most from constituents is gas prices. “Hardworking Arizonans are struggling in this economy,” Wadsack said. “Turning a blind eye to crippling gas prices is like throwing salt on their wounds. As lawmakers, we should do everything in our power to improve the lives of our citizens who elected us to represent them.”

Currently, the Cleaner Burning Gasoline (CBG) blend sold in Arizona has two varieties — a summer blend from May 1 to Sept. 30 and a non-summer blend from Oct. 1 to Apr. 30. Phoenix, which is in Maricopa County, is the largest sprawling metropolitan city in the state and, therefore, the city with the most vehicles on the road.

Back in the late 1990s, the Environmental Protection Agency said, “The Phoenix area is currently a serious nonattainment area for ground-level nozone (smog), carbon monoxide and particulates. The fact that health-based national air quality standards have not been met means that ozone, carbon monoxide and particulate levels remain a threat to public health in the Phoenix area.”

The proposed legislation, Kolodin said, wouldn’t rescind or take away laws already in the books. The legislation would reportedly comply with EPA rules, but it would just open up Maricopa County to more options, which would force sellers to compete by lowering their prices.

Current laws only require oil refineries to contact the governor’s office about requesting a possible waiver by the EPA to forego CBG. Blaming Governor Katie Hobbs for not acting on a request from refineries in early 2023, warning that prices would rocket during the summer. The proposed legislation would include the Arizona Legislature in the notification.

Hobbs, however, did eventually request a waiver on Aug. 31, which the EPA approved the next day. A waiver extension was also filed and approved Sept. 21.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2023 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.