Dems May Make Gasoline Unavailable With Price Controls

Not even Democrats can create a problem so severe that they cannot make it worse by applying more of their trademark authoritarianism. Gasoline prices have been setting new record highs thanks to the Biden Regime’s continuing War on Energy (see e.g. here, here, here, here, here). What’s worse than paying too much for gas because our malevolent rulers won’t allow domestic production on the grounds of their delusional climate change ideology? Rationing, lines, or no oil at all thanks to price controls:

[Biden] would have the authority to declare an emergency that would make the sale of gasoline at “excessive” prices illegal under legislation House Democrats plan to bring to the floor next week.

The effort, announced Thursday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, comes as Democrats seek to blame record high gasoline prices on the oil industry amid fears that angry voters could punish Democrats in the midterm elections in November.

Even with control of the media, Democrats won’t find it easy to get that dog to hunt. We all heard Biden promising to “get rid” of the fossil fuels that make everything work before he was installed in power, just as we all remember that gas prices were barely half as high under Trump.

The legislation being brought for a vote, the Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act, would also give the Federal Trade Commission the power to issue penalties for price gouging, according to a summary of the legislation.

The penalties would make energy production still less profitable, guaranteeing still lower supply.

When the government mandates that something be sold below cost, it becomes unavailable. Democrats would celebrate this, because according to their insane ideology, it would improve the weather.

Meanwhile Chuck Schumer, who just put 49 Democrat Senators on the record as wanting to impose abortion up to the moment of birth on all 50 states, wants to sic the Federal Trade Commission on energy companies to force them to lower prices.

We know from having endured the 1970s that price controls on oil just don’t work:

Price controls always carry unintended consequences, but in this episode, the tradeoffs were particularly disastrous. Far from taking “windfall profits” from domestic oil producers and distributing them to the consumers, the price control regulations instead gave opportunities to shrewd speculators to reap income from “regulatory arbitrage.”

Dems in sane districts are begging Pelosi to back off from policies guaranteed to bring back 1970s-era gas lines:

Embattled Democrats are pushing back on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) decision to reject a gas tax holiday, urging party leaders to reconsider a proposal as lawmakers take a beating over sky-high gas prices.

The grumbling is especially pronounced among lawmakers facing tough reelection contests in November, who are eager to bring home a policy they say would provide tangible and immediate savings for drivers at the pump.

But both Biden and Pelosi oppose suspending the federal gas tax in favor of Marxist rhetoric and punishing the people who produce the gasoline.

Hold on — it isn’t just the oil companies to blame, it is also Vladimir Putin’s tax cut hike:

Having let people like this take control of the government, we would be fools not to expect the worst.

On tips from Kevin R. and Bluto.

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