Headline: "Gas shortages experienced around the country, regulaters miffed while politicians promise to fix the problem"

No this headline hasn't appeared yet, but it a distinct possibility if the current energy bill becomes law. I'm not certain about the bills chances in the house, but I am very hopeful the president will use the veto. It passed the Senate by a somewhat surprisingly large margin: 65- 27. Although there are a few annoying features in the bill, the price gouging issue is the worse.

Our comrades in congress will have the ability to throw penalties at oil companies whenever they feel unloved. This is crazy. In congress' ever expanding need for power they have decided to wade into the gray area of private pricing practices.

This is a de-facto price control mechanism. The threat of penalties will change the natural price signals mechanism. For those of you who have not been through Econ-101 (and it seems a majority of Senators haven't) that means shortages will follow. I wish I had some long technocratic jargon laced explanation backed with fancy math equations that nobody understands, but it isn't necessary. Price ceilings cause shortages. End of story.

So when there are gas lines and everybody is crying "why? why?" they can look back to the 2007 Energy bill for answers.