Since the federal government appears unwilling to do anything about out-of-control gasoline prices, Fran Florez says she thinks it's about time the state did something instead.

Florez, running unopposed in Tuesday's Democratic primary for the 30th Assembly District, unveiled a proposal to amend the California Constitution to allow the state Public Utilities Commission to regulate gasoline and diesel prices -- just as it oversees the rates charged by water, electricity and communications utilities.

"Right now the oil companies say gas prices are high because foreign oil is so expensive," Florez, a Shafter City Council member, said Wednesday. "But we have oil in Kern County that we pump and refine and sell."

"We don't know where our gasoline is coming from, but we're paying the same price and it's unfair because we don't have the same transportation costs for the oil produced in California."

Florez said if the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over prices at the pump, "at least the oil companies would have to justify these increases, just the same way the utility copanies do before their rates can go up."

Florez' Republican opponent in the November general election, retired CHP officer Danny Gilmore of Hanford, agreed that rising gas prices are a painful reality for people -- not only in the areas of Kern and Kings counties that make up the bulk of the 30th Assembly District, but across the country -- but dismissed Florez' proposal as political posturing.

"I thought this crap came closer to November," Gilmore campaign manager Julie Griffiths said Wednesday.

Gilmore was a little less rustic in his assessment. "I don't think it's a good idea at all," he said. "Like me, she's old enough to remember what happened under the Carter administration in the late 1970s, when the government tries to regulate prices and we had long gasoline lines.

"It wasn't fun as a CHP officer responding to these long lines where people were beating each other up and shooting at each other," he added.

Gilmore pointed to the taxes paid on each gallon of fuel sold -- a figure he tabbed at about 63 cents per gallon, and said rather than regulation, the problem requires a "holistic approach" that includes a focus on reducing gas taxes and fees, as well as more domestic drilling and new refineries.

He agrees with Florez, though, that domestic oil will play an important role. "We've sat back for years knowing we have oil here," he said, "but there are a lot of people against more drilling and refining, so we're dependent on the foreign oil."