SACRAMENTO – On June 8, two California state legislators introduced a bill that would not just go after retailers for “gouging,” but would also allow the state to prosecute oil refiners and wholesalers, reports the San Jose Mercury News.

“The price of gas continues to go up every single day,'' said Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, adding, “The question is, is there no end in sight? Should we expect it'll go up to $4 or $5 a gallon and we just have to make adjustments necessary to swallow the excuses we continue to get from the oil companies?”

The bill, which is supported by Attorney General Bill Lockyer, does not provide “immediate relief to consumers,” writes the newspaper.

California law states that gasoline prices cannot increase by more than 10 percent for a 30-day period if the governor has declared a state of emergency. However, the governor has yet to call a state of emergency and the only folks who can be prosecuted for gouging are the retailers.

The newspaper writes that the proposed measure would make three changes to current state law:

1. Allow the governor to declare a state of emergency when oil production is disrupted, even it is happens outside the state, such as the case with Hurricane Katrina
2. Extend the 30-day state of emergency period to a 60-day period
3. Allow the state to go after oil refiners and wholesalers for suspected price gouging

“In the post-Katrina investigations where we collected hundreds of complaints, there were numerous cases where prices increased by around 17 percent or more,'' said Lockyer, adding that the investigations found that it wasn’t the corner gasoline stations “gouging people.” Rather, it was those “further up the supply chain pushing costs onto corner stations." Therefore, there was no one to prosecute "and we couldn't go after the refineries,'' he said.

Lockyer added that since the beginning of the year, the price of crude oil has increased 14 percent, while the refineries’ margins have increase 130 percent and gasoline prices have increased 47 percent.

“It's the refineries that are making extraordinary profits,” said Lockyer. “If it's the price of crude going through the supply chain, that's understandable. But if they're taking advantage of consumers during disasters, then we want them to be responsible and not take extra profits during times of crisis.”

Meanwhile some oil industry executives are questioning what impact additional legislation would actually have.

“Our industry has been subject to investigation after investigation after investigation--more than 30 from my count--and in none of these instances was there a finding that the industry conducted itself in an illegal or improper way,” Tupper Hull, a representative at the Western States Petroleum Association in Sacramento told the newspaper, adding, “I'm not sure what the purpose of this is.”

During a campaign stop in Redding, Gov. Schwarzenegger (R) responded to questions about what he could do to curb high prices at the pump. 

“I cannot personally do anything about the gas prices,” the governor said, adding that if gouging is occurring, the state will “go after those oil companies.”