SACRAMENTO, CA - Back in the Dark Ages of the 1970s, whenever gasoline prices shot up, inquisitorial
hearings would immediately be held, with some Senator Foghorn charging, without evidence, that there must be
an oil company conspiracy at work. This week the old scene repeated itself--but this time it wasn’t a
congressional committee whooping it up, but rather the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). "We’re
suspicious of [price] gouging," an EPA spokesman told reporters.

But what hath the EPA to do with the price of gas? If there really was evidence of price collusion, wouldn’t
the matter better belong to the Federal Trade Commission or the Antitrust Division of the Justice
Department? (Well, okay, maybe the lawyers at the DOJ are a bit distracted at the moment as they attempt to
restructure the software industry.) The EPA is claiming jurisdiction because recent gasoline price increases in
the midwest coincide with the beginning of the EPA mandate for several midwestern states to use cleaner
reformulated gasoline (RFG) as a measure to reduce air pollution.

California and several other states have been using reformulated gasoline for several years now, and the
price of refining RFG has supposedly been falling steadily. The oil refining and retail gasoline market
can be as complicated and intricate as the airline seat pricing system, and therefore can seem capricious to an
outside lay observer, or a government regulator. But the real story here is not that the EPA is worried that
a price-gouging cartel has been formed; it’s that the EPA would be against such a price-raising scheme in the
first place. Contemplating this irony for a moment reveals the jerking liberal knee under the conference
table.

If you were to name the single most desired item on the environmental wish list it would be … sharply higher
gas prices! Hardly a day goes by that some environmental guru doesn’t praise Europe for having
$5-a-gallon gasoline, while troglodyte America displays its indifference to mother Earth through its orgy of
cheap gasoline and sport utility vehicles. Vice President Al Gore, recall, wrote in Earth in the Balance that higher gasoline prices are essential if the nation is to achieve environmental enlightenment, and that those who oppose higher gas taxes to achieve this are "shortsighted."

It must be a depressing to be an environmentalist these days. Even with the recent jump in the price of
gasoline, it is still cheaper, adjusted for inflation, than it was in the 1950s. Yet Americans are screaming
mad about pump prices, and Al Gore is terrified of what might happen in November if gas prices stay above $2 a
gallon. So even the EPA is now enlisted in the effort to keep gasoline inexpensive. The EPA is worried sick
that the public might connect the dots and conclude that their gas costs more because of federal clean-air
policy.

On the other hand, perhaps what this really reveals is that liberal environmentalists are only happy if
gasoline prices are raised through taxation alone. If the oil industry and the market raise the price of gas,
well, what fun is that?

-- Steven Hayward