HONOLULU, Hawaii -- The price of crude oil has dropped to $50 a barrel, so why are gas prices still so high?

As crude oil drops squeaks below the $3 mark, many people are asking that same question.

“I absolutely think the price should come down at the pump. I want to know what is keeping the prices up. Why are they so elevated in Hawaii?” said Deborah Lucket, a driver who said she's sick of the high prices.

Kahala Shell's Bill Green said the price at the pump is coming down, but at a drop of a couple cents a week, its slow going.

“We want it to come down as fast as we can, I am constantly badgering Shell,” said Green.

Hawaii's two refiners, Chevron and Tesoro, said the gas they are selling to retail stations is made from crude purchased months ago at higher prices.

“We are going to see the lag in Hawaii because the inventory that is here in the tanks and the slowness of the market. We just don't see the peaks and valleys like we do on the mainland,” said Barnaby Robinson, owner of Waialae Chevron.

Another factor in the prices is the source of the oil. Most Hawaiian gas is refined not from benchmark U.S. crude, but from more expensive Indonesian crude.

Robinson said his prices have come done 5 cents a gallon in the last 5 days.

Gas retailers' prices aren't just dependent on crude. They said their prices are also influenced by the price of ethanol, which they have to mix in at 10 percent a gallon. Currently the price of ethanol exceeds the price of crude.

They said still another factor driving prices up is the fact that they no longer get an excise tax exemption for selling ethanol mixed gas.