>and so you suggest hurting the vast majority of people even more? 1. More people are hurt by price gouging of products with inelastic demand than hurt by limi

>and so you suggest hurting the vast majority of people even more? 1. More people are hurt by price gouging of products with inelastic demand than hurt by limiting the price increase. 2. A completely floating gas price disproportionately affects disadvantaged folks who have no alternative, even when there are no outages. I mean, I totally agree with OP, there's a straightforward solution: set up a government program that insulates people from the effects of a floating price proportionately to how disadvantaged they are, and then, after that, let the gas price float. That way we get your idea without hurting anyone! Win-win.