First, Hawaii imposed price controls on gasoline. Now comes this story from California:
With chronically high pump prices straining its laid-back ethos, Hawaii embarks this week on a radical experiment to cap gasoline prices, a move being keenly watched nationwide by legislators and consumer groups eager to rein in record fuel costs.
Interest will be especially high in California, a unique market that some experts liken to Hawaii’s because of the high prices charged by gas stations and big profits reaped by a few in-state refiners.
This week, state Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana) will reintroduce legislation that would give the California Public Utilities Commission the power to regulate gasoline prices.
“Hawaii is taking the absolutely correct approach to the gasoline industry,” said Dunn, a strident critic of energy companies. “The more states that follow Hawaii’s lead, the sooner we’ll be able to force this industry to get back to normal market behavior that benefits the consumer but also allows them a reasonable profit.”
And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, there’s this piece of insanity:
Ever-rising gasoline prices have politicians thinking and talking about whether gas prices should be regulated.
The Public Utilities Commission in Hawaii has imposed a cap on the price of gasoline, the first state in the nation to do so.
The debate over possible regulation has come up in five other states. Politicians in Michigan, Oregon, California, New York and Connecticut have publicly debated and talked about price regulation.
Given what I said yesterday about the inevitable call for price controls, none of this comes as a surprise. The public is going to want “something” done about the high price of gasoline, and there are far too many politicians who are far too eager to do something in the worst way possible.
I’m not going to spend time arguing why price controls are a bad idea. That has been demonstrated so many times throughout history, that one would think that it would be second nature to everyone by now. Apparently, it isn’t.
Go ahead California. Impose price controls. Hopefully, your highways will be long enough to handle the gas lines that will inevitably result from them.
