West Coast gas prices: 'There's a conflict of interest here'

EUGENE, Ore. - As the rest of the nation enjoys falling gas prices, prices on the West Coast have hit or approached historic highs.

Rep. Peter DeFazio has called for a federal investigation into why multiple California refineries have closed for maintenance at the same time, and why the Cherry Point Refinery in Washington has yet to resume operations months after a fire there.

"With the loss of output, gasoline supplies have tightened and dropped to its lowest level in close to a decade," said Patrick DeHaan, Senior Petroleum Analyst at GasBuddy.com.

GasBuddy.com puts the new national average price at $3.65 a gallon.

Prices in Eugene went up nearly 3 cents last week to an average of $4.29.

That's a painful gap of 64 cents that DeHaan said is the largest he's ever seen for Eugene - and one that will likely get bigger before it gets smaller.

Gas taxes also play a role: 30 cents per gallon stat, 18.4 cents federal and a local tax of a nickel per gallon in Eugene.

But DeHaan said DeFazio's call for investigation makes sense.

"There's a conflict of interest here," he said. "If refineries all do maintenance at once, supply drops and margins they earn soar."