Armed with a new analysis from his Office of Energy Independence, Governor Doyle says it's clear big oil companies are manipulating the market.
We've been told the price of gas is high because supplies are down due to refinery problems. But Energy Independence director Judy Ziewacz says that's not what the numbers say. According to her analysis, gas supply actually increased across the country by two point five two percent since January of this year.
But Ziewacz says the price has jumped thirty-eight per cent while big oil profits have also skyrocketed.
Ziewacz remembers the state's big-oil hearings more than a year ago where one CEO was quoted as saying they would rather sell less at higher prices.
The analysis also points out the nation's refinery capacity is now in the hands of seven major oil companies. It used to be owned by at least twenty.
Ziewacz says that's why her office was created to make Wisconsin twenty-five percent independent of big oil by 2025.
She says Governor Doyle asked for thirty-million in his latest budget for renewable energy research. But that already puts us behind neighboring states. Iowa just passed a bill allocating one hundred million.
