Two weeks ago, as Hurricane Ike approached our country's oil-refining region, drivers and gas station owners anticipated a supply cut. Drivers responded by hurrying to fill up, and stations responded by raising prices. In Asheville, where stations most expected supply cuts, prices went up the most.

Very publicly, Roy Cooper, our attorney general, clamped down on these price increases in an attempt to prevent the ill-defined crime of "gouging." Predictably, gas stations lowered their prices to avoid subjecting themselves to Cooper's investigation into whether they set prices that are "unreasonably excessive under the circumstances." Under Cooper's apparent definition of this extraordinarily nebulous expression, any price increase beyond a corresponding increase in cost was illegal.

Unfortunately, there are consequences to messing with the laws of supply and demand, as Asheville residents have since discovered. Instead of being able to buy gas at the inflated $5.49 price that Cooper deemed excessive, many now cannot buy it at any price. Those who do find gas pay in wasted time in long gas lines or searching for a running station. In either case, they were made worse off by Cooper's enforcement of the gouging statute, not better.

Chris Fulmer

Raleigh

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