As you know firsthand, residents on the West Coast have been paying outrageous gas price (i.e. over 50 cents more than the national average).

On June 2, I paid $4.18 a gallon at Costco (usually the cheapest price in Federal Way) when the national average for a gallon of gas was around $3.60. In addition to the turmoil in the Middle East (Egypt, Syria, Iran, etc.), one of the main reasons are gas prices skyrocketed was the decision by the oil companies to shut down around eight refineries on the West Coast for maintenance and repairs until the first of July.

The federal government (unfortunately) would not do anything to address this problem. However, fortunately for us, our governor did act. She got her Commerce Department involved and managed to open a Washington refinery early.

I don’t know if she was successful — but she also urged the refineries in California to open as well. The $64,000 question is, why the big oil companies had to shut down all these refineries at the same time? Surely, they knew it would drive up the gas prices on the West Coast and their profits as well.

Whatever Governor Gregoire did, it worked. Nine days later when I gassed up at Costco, the gas price had dropped 24 cents to $3.949 and in only two weeks, it had dropped a whopping 46 cents a gallon to $3.719 and it is still dropping.

Now finally our gas prices are close to the national average – which just dropped below $3.50, although some are paying as low as $3.30 — and we have the governor to thank.

Hopefully, our Congressional representatives can learn an important lesson.

Gary Robertson, Federal Way