Dumb idea fails, film at 11

Hawaii Gives Up on Its Attempt to Control Gas Prices

"In a lot of people's minds, they thought the gas cap wasn't working," said Sen. Paul Whalen, a strong supporter of the law. "It was hard to generate lots of support for it because ... we're paying more than we ever were before."

Hawaii first imposed weekly limits on wholesale gas prices Sept. 1 based on the average of prices in Los Angeles, New York and the Gulf Coast. Then allowances were added for what it costs wholesalers to ship to Hawaii and distribute gas to more remote islands.

Price caps differed for each island. There was no cap on the markup added by gas stations.

Some opponents argued that the state's limit on gas prices actually helped the oil companies boost profits because they knew they could charge up to the maximum allowed.

Another problem was that it was hard to tell whether the law did any good.

"It's ridiculous. Prices jumped up 20 cents in the last couple of days," said Calvin Reddick, who paid $15 for just over four gallons of gas for his Volkswagon Beetle. "Usually when you have a cap, it's supposed to freeze prices off. Obviously, their idea of a cap is different from mine."

I just wish there was some way to, you know, set the price depending on how much gas people need and how much gas is available at that time. We can call it 'supply and demand', or something.