This is a non-renewable natural resource we're talking about. It boggles my mind that this country thinks it has a God-given right to piss away the Earth's entire store of petroleum for a dollar a gallon. Of course some of the recent increase in gasoline prices is due to the new clean air rules mandating reformulated gasoline. It's reasonable for everyone to pay a little extra for cleaner air. There will always be some regional price discrepancies.
Different areas require different gasoline mixtures to meet their clean air targets.
The implementation just went into effect, so some initial distribution hick-ups should be expected. This aspect of the new clean air rules is not o.k. It hasn't worked that way in a long, long time. Here's the outline for an encyclopedia article I'm working on about exploration seismology. Any suggestions or comments will be appreciated.