FACT CHECK — Abercrombie: Hawaii In The Hands of Singapore Oil Speculators

U.S. Energy Information Administration

Gov. Neil Abercrombie went off script during his annual State of the State address on Monday.

Driving home his point that Hawaii's dependency on foreign oil was jeopardizing "the very survival of our state," he said that Hawaii's energy prices were heavily controlled by Singapore.

Specifically, he said:

We are totally in the hands of oil speculators in Singapore.

The governor's spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz said that by oil speculators Abercrombie was referring to "the people who set the prices."

"What he is saying is that the state government cannot control the price of electricity or gasoline. Those prices are set elsewhere and that is why we need to take creating our own power into our own hands," she said.

Civil Beat contacted oil experts, Tesoro Hawaii, Hawaiian Electric Co. and the state energy office to verify the claim. HECO, the energy office and Tesoro declined to tackle the inquiry.

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