| Energy

Price Gougers Wanted

by Carl Milsted, Jr.

The Bush years are looking more and more like the Nixon years: a dishonest executive, a military quagmire, paranoia, upset hippies, ballooning size of government, and now...gas lines – at least if you live in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Last night on the way to the organic grocery store I counted 12 closed gas stations and one that was open.

What gas that is available is going for close to $4/gallon, and people are angry. Some complain of “price gouging.”

I complain too: we don’t have enough price gouging!

The Colonial Pipeline, which supplies my area, is fed by refineries hit by hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Trucking in gasoline from other sources is expensive because we are uphill. Prices should be high in order to encourage conservation, and pay people to truck more gas uphill.

But NOOOOO! North Carolina has laws against “price gouging.” So instead of temporary $6 gasoline, we have no gasoline at most stations. When a station does open, people line up and fill their tanks to the top. The market is stockpiling after the production shortfall.

Price gouging should be legal. Let the prices rise high enough and people will start delivering gas in plastic tanks in the back of their pickup trucks, if that’s what it takes. With high prices and assurance that gas will be available, people will buy just what they need until the shortage ends. If price gouging was legal, wholesalers would have stockpiled before hurricane season in order to make a windfall.

Stupid politicians.

Maybe the Peak Oil disaster mongers are right. Maybe Peak Oil will destroy the economy and end civilization – if our politicians are too economically ignorant to allow prices to rise in times of shortage.