Let the gouging and panic begin!

I'm sure anyone who's been at...or driven by...a gas station today knew exactly what that title meant before they even read this sentence. The Texaco by my house jumped to $2.99/gallon (for regular) this afternoon and when I passed it a second time, the owners had already placed orange barricades outside to announce that any interested consumers were too damn late. The other small gas station across the street had considerably less traffic at $3.12/g for regular, but further inspection revealed they were OUT of regular, but that they did have premium for the low, low price of $3.63/g.

For those unaware, the main reason for this is Hurricane Katrina, which so nicely knocked out a significant % of our oil refineries. So, naturally, this leads to price gouging and mass panic. The wife did just tell me, however, that gas stations along the turnpike can only change their prices on Fridays so, if you're lucky, you might be able to get some cheap gas along the turnpike. Something tells me though that the gas supply there probably dried up around noon.

On the plus side, if you ever wanted a Hummer, I suspect you'll be able to find them verrrrry cheap by the end of the year.