Hurricane Profiteering

Apparently Bush didn't feel that the Category 4 hurricane Katrina as he did for Terri Schiavo and felt that biking and fishing were more important. However, more problematic was Bush's reaction to a storm that derailed a large amount of refinery activity in the Gulf Coast area. Instead of immediately promising to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as an effort to contain spikes in the price of crude oil and the retail gasoline prices, he instead did nothing. This hurts the entire country and its economic activity. Who, one may ask, does it benefit? Energy companies, who recieve inflated prices on their current supplies of gasoline will see increased profits from this hurricane across the country, not just in the regions affected by the hurricane. The price increase is especially prominent because there have been no new refineries built in the past 20 years and the current capacity is stretched to the limit as it is. Thus, Hurricane Katrina's impact on reducing supply of gasoline to a nation already experiencing increases in gas prices will increase prices even more. There is no room in the current production capacity to increase production outside of the Gulf Coast region, so, holding demand constant, prices must increase. By not acting, Bush has done a service to energy companies like ExxonMobil at the expense of the rest of the country. He should be punished for price gouging through his inaction.