Mitch, if they do that, there will be widespread shortages of gasoline across the state. The gasoline supplies here will be completely exhausted in the short term; there will be none left. And the politicians will probably still blame it on price increases (probably for “causing the panic” or some other such post-hoc blame-shifting).

You know, rather than prosecute the higher-priced gasoline stations, we ought to go after the lower-priced ones for “unfair competition“! Seriously, who’s to say which is the True Price of Gasoline in a short-term supply crunch?

Mike Easley? Why, he wouldn’t know good economics if he finagled his wife into a hundred-thousand-plus taxpayer-paid gig to reserve him a room at a Holiday Inn Express!