When Tropical Storm Sandy ravaged the New Jersey coast in 2012, Gov. Chris Christie was relentless in stopping price-gouging. Today, five years later, because of the shutdown of refineries in Texas and a key pipeline supplying the northeastern states in the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, gasoline prices in our area have soared some 43 cents a gallon in a matter of days, yet there has been barely a peep from our state officials in Harrisburg or those in Washington about the situation.

Granted, we are not in harm's way as are those who took the brunt of the storm in Texas. Still, it seems as if the big oil companies are taking advantage of the situation. We are told that this is the way our capitalistic system works - the law of supply and demand. The less the supply, and the more the demand, well, that is the perfect storm for much higher gas prices.On top of that, there is the ever-present panic that accompanies major disasters such as Katrina, Sandy and now Harvey. We, not the oil companies, are responsible for this irresponsible behavior.Some motorists camp out at service stations, topping off their tanks for fear of not having enough gas to take care of whatever needs to be done. When we're talking about thousands of gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks queuing up to get gas every day, this can eat up available supplies in a hurry.In normal times, a half-tank of gas is perfectly fine for most drivers, but when they hear dire warnings through the media of supply dislocation and shortages, nothing will do except a full tank - just in case. Hey, you never know, they reason.The chances of service stations in this part of the country running out of gas are rare, but motorists here see the same news stories about stations in Texas and Louisiana running out of gas. Shortages have even spread to some Midwestern cities such as Chicago and Detroit. Hearing about the shutdown of the major Colonial pipeline that carries gasoline to our area convinces them that the same thing can happen here.In the days after Sandy, Christie put business-owners and companies on notice. "I assure New Jersey's residents and retailers that we are taking a zero-tolerance approach to price-gouging. Fuel, electricity, food and a place to sleep are not luxuries. We are not asking businesses to function as charities, but we require that they obey New Jersey's laws or pay significant penalties," Christie said.That stern warning kept the number of price-gouging incidents manageable.Neither Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf nor Attorney General Josh Shapiro has addressed the sharp spike in gas prices throughout the commonwealth, but a few attorneys general in other states have.In North Carolina, for example, Attorney General Josh Stein said his office has received more than 125 complaints about price-gouging. He acknowledged that some service stations may be experiencing slightly higher costs to buy the gas than before the hurricane, so it is legitimate that they charge "a little bit more if it cost them more." But, he added, "if they have all of their supply at the same price they always got it and they raise their price 50 cents or a $1 a gallon or something like that, then that is unreasonable and against the law."Two of the leading price-forecasting analysts, Patrick DeHaan of GasBuddy and Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service, predict that the national average of gas could rise to an average of $2.75 or higher in the coming days. That price was already eclipsed during the long Labor Day weekend. I saw some prices as high as $2.93 a gallon for regular at some stations in the Poconos, while $2.89 was commonplace. The lowest I saw locally Tuesday was $2.77 in Summit Hill. Some analysts predict $3 a gallon if the supply disruptions last longer than expected.A rule of thumb is that every penny increase in gas prices takes $1 billion to $2 billion out of the economy from consumers.The operator of the Colonial pipeline that gets its supply from Texas and Louisiana shut down the facility on Aug. 3, presumably for several days. Harvey's wrath has shuttered refineries that can process up to 4.4 million barrels of crude a day, accounting for about one-quarter of the nation's oil-refining capacity.How long the spike in prices lasts will depend on how quickly Gulf Coast refineries are back in business. Exxon Mobil said on Tuesday that it has restarted its Baytown refinery, meaning that things are slowly getting back to a more normal supply. Our advice: Don't panic, and don't disrupt gasoline supplies locally by having a run on service stations reminiscent of the gas shortages in the 1970s. If all goes according to forecast, prices and supplies should return to near normal levels by month's end.By Bruce Frassinelli |

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