Would out-of-state gas ease prices?

Gasoline prices higher than $5 per gallon are posted at a Menlo Park, Calif., Chevron station on Friday, Oct. 5, 2012. Californians woke up to a shock Friday as overnight gasoline prices jumped by as much as 20 cents a gallon in some areas, ending a week of soaring costs that saw some stations close and others charge record prices. The average price of regular gas across the state was nearly $4.49 a gallon, the highest in the nation, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge report. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) less Gasoline prices higher than $5 per gallon are posted at a Menlo Park, Calif., Chevron station on Friday, Oct. 5, 2012. Californians woke up to a shock Friday as overnight gasoline prices jumped by as much as ... more Photo: Noah Berger, Associated Press Photo: Noah Berger, Associated Press Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Would out-of-state gas ease prices? 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

With gas in short supply and prices in California soaring to more than $5 per gallon, a quick but politically volatile solution may be to allow cheaper, out-of-state gas to flow into the state, says Severin Borenstein, the co-director of the Energy Institute at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.

"Just as it doesn't take much of a shortage to trigger the price spike, it wouldn't take much of an increase in supply to bring the price down," Borenstein said.

Since 1996, California pumps have been required to sell a special blend of lower polluting gasoline.

The hope was that other states would follow suit.

They haven't. As a result, when gas gets tight in California, there is little choice but to ride out the shortage and subsequent price spike.

Borenstein suggests allowing suppliers - for a fee of say 25 cents per gallon - to bring in the less healthy gas.

"Chances are it wouldn't last for very long, because the price would drop back down and the money from the fee could be used for clean air programs," he said.

Borenstein first proposed the stopgap measure in a 1999 Chronicle opinion piece and was quickly criticized by lawmakers.

"One state senator accused me of trying to ruin the lungs of the children of Los Angeles," Borenstein said.

From the sound of things, little has changed.

Gordon Schremp, with the California Energy Commission, said that while he has a lot of respect for Borenstein's idea, it would require a lengthy hearing process.

Besides, the return of the Exxon refinery in Torrance to full production will probably end the latest spike within a week.

"At this point, it's not necessary," Schremp said.

As for the next spike?

Booked: San Francisco is poised to have the most hotel visitors on record.

The city has sold out all 34,000 rooms on multiple occasions this year - bringing the average occupancy rate to 80 percent.

"This could well be the busiest year the city has ever seen," San Francisco Travel president Joe D'Alessandro said.

The last time the city reached the 80 percent mark was during the dot-com boom in 1999 - when there were slightly fewer rooms.

In the past decade, however, the typical price of a room has also increased more than $20 - and now averages more than $170 a night.

"So hotels will have more revenue than ever before," says Thomas Callahan of PKF Consulting, which advises the hotel business.

In other words. he says, "It's a great time to own a hotel in San Francisco."

This weekend, with an estimated 1 million visitors - mostly from around the Bay Area- descending on San Francisco for everything from Fleet Week and the America's Cup World Series races to Giants playoff games, the town was expected to be booked full.

In all, tourism generates more than a half-billion annually in taxes for the city - making it the town's No. 1 industry.

Obama's return: As if the weekend didn't already put a strain on the city, now comes President Obama for yet another trip to the city.

The First Fundraiser touches down Monday for a one-stop rally and round of fundraisers at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.

The rally (where tickets start at $100) will feature singer John Legend and 49ers quarterback Alex Smith.

For those with heavier wallets, there also will be a $40,000-a-head "tech roundtable" - or, for the same price, couples can get dinner cooked by celebrity chefs Alice Waters and Tyler Florence served up in one of the auditorium's meeting rooms.

"Not a particularly intimate setting," said one organizer, "but at this point it's about money."

Upward of $4 million, in fact, if the fundraising here goes as planned.

Ivory tower: Given the security, one would have thought the California State University trustees were picking the pope rather than the new chancellor.

For starters, all trustees were required to hand over their cell phones when they went in for the final selection process.

Second, the trustees left the ex-officio board members - i.e., elected state officials - out of the initial screening process, something Assembly Speaker John Perez voiced his displeasure over when he showed up at the Long Beach meeting.

By the way, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer who by all accounts gave a very impressive interview for the job, was not among the three finalists - all three of whom were academics.