Should the Government Regulate Gas Prices?

This shows what would happen if demand exceeded supply. There would be an extreme shortage.

Definitely not! The benefit of having the gas prices low is awesome; however, that one big pro does not come close to measuring up to the cons, AT ALL. The first problem with regulating gas prices is -in my opinion- obvious. Controls prevent the price system from rationing our available supply, for instance in 1973 and 1979 the government set a maximum price for gas consequently owners sold gas as first come first served, so if you didn't get there in time to fill your tank and they ran out you were out of luck and had to try again next time. Not to mention because of the first come first serve policy gas station owners used there was a very long line at the pump, which ended in you spending more money, because of time wasted waiting in line and as soon as you got o the pump it would run out. It didn't take long for customers started paying extra so they didn't have to wait in the long line. People literally bribed the owner! Oh but don't worry not everyone had to pay in order to get to the front of the line. The people who were longtime customers, close friends, and the politically connected got there way in the front because they were "special". Sure now days there is a way around that we have tons of gas stations with self served pumps, and more than one pump at each station. This is a very valid point, but here is the second problem with government setting a price for gasoline, It will cause a huge imbalance in supply and demand! For those who do not understand the severity of that you most likely more "here and now" kind of people, but what about 20 years from now when we are out of the resources needed to produce gas? Overtime we (U.S. citizens) demand more and more gas for our cars, and as demand continues to rise supply stays the same or even falls. Yes its true, in the long run demand in gas is some what elastic, but in the short run the demand is inelastic. Meaning to be able to lower consumer demand, even the tiniest bit, there needs to be a drastic change in price. Maybe your thinking well what's the worst that can happen if demand exceeds supply? To answer this question if the prices don't rise then gas pumps will run completely dry! Prices are used to allocate scarce goods! Of course there is always the option to tweak gasoline so cars can still run on it, or even replace gas all together! That would be an absolutely brilliant idea if it didn't take billions and billions and dollars to do. Environment regulations already have affected refineries to an extreme extent. Ever since all the global warming issues were brought up by environmentalists there are tons of restrictions on how to make gas! Still not fully getting where I'm coming from? Now that the government is controlling what you can and can't put in gasoline to produce it refineries have to reinvest in new tools and machines needed in order to do this, which would be fine if these new changes weren't happening on a regular basis. Some factories have had to shut down because they were not able to pay for this or they were in so much debt just trying to keep up with the new discoveries and ways to produce gas. So in my opinion regulating gas price would cause a lot more trouble then if we just let them continue as they are.