2 Cents - Gas prices

Last Week when the threat of Hurricane Ike was approaching the Texas Coast There was a lot of talk about the potential for higher gas prices. It didn’t take long for these fears to become a reality, as we watched the prices here in south Carolina jump from 3-61 a gallon to 450 even 523 at some stations in just a matter of hours.

The outrage from local consumers rose to an time high and the attorney general Henry McMasters office was flooded with thousands of emails and hundreds of phone calls. All of them angered at what they felt was price gouging.

The uproar led to McMasters decision to invoke the states price gouging law, sending prosecutors all across south Carolina to investigate.

We applaud Mr. McMaster in his attempt to quiet the storm and leave us feeling as if someone is going to protect us from being taken for ride at the pump.  but what we really need to know is How much is too much? Who decides what is gouging and what isn’t?

Perhaps 30 percent over the state average is gouging.

Or maybe how often and how quickly an increase takes place is a factor

There just needs to be some type of system in place that would allow us to measure the gas prices equally against each other.

We have to get in front of this issue now so that in the future the consumers and the suppliers are on the same page as to how much is really too much.

I’m Rick Lipps and that’s my two cents.