Just caught up with this smart WSJ piece by Daniel Yergin, on Katrina and the energy crunch. An important extract:

Calls for price controls and allocations will likely grow. As painful as the price hikes may be, those calls should be resisted: The gas lines of the ’70s were largely self-inflicted, the perverse result of controls. More constructive, and hugely less cumbersome and costly, would be clear communication to consumers. A package of responses, such as properly inflated tires, adherence to speed limits, consolidation of trips, and tune-ups, could cut gasoline consumption by 10% to 20%. This needs to be reiterated again and again, for modest restraint on demand is the quickest way to take the pressure off the market.

So strike a blow for economic freedom:

Frustate the price-control crowd and check your tires! According to this goverment website: “You can improve your gas mileage by around 3.3 percent by keeping your tires inflated to the proper pressure. Under-inflated tires can lower gas mileage by 0.4 percent for every 1 psi drop in pressure of all four tires. Properly inflated tires are safer and last longer.”