With the price of gas up 26% over the past year and oil hitting the staggering price of $67 per barrel, there are an awful lot of shady characters filling up their cars without paying up. Although some gas stations have installed some deterrents as extra surveillance cameras as well as systems that force you to pay before they pump, many more have been nagging state legislators to help curb rampant gas theft. Here are some of the fruits of their lobbying.

Pumping up Penalties
With police records revealing that 42% of the nearly 34,000 larcenies committed last year in Oklahoma City involved gas theft, the Oklahoma Governor signed a bill this spring that raised the fine for stealing gas to $500 from $100. Of course considering a tank of gas now which is cheaper?

Suspending Licenses
Iowa enacted a law last month giving courts the right to suspend the licenses if second time offenders as long as 30 days. A similar law kicked off this month in Minnesota, with the same penalty for first time offenders. I am wondering who gave them that idea, or did they think of that all by them selves

Demanding Prepayment
Voters in Milwaukee will decide next month whether to join several municipalities including Twin Falls, Idaho, and Myrtle Beach, SC, which in recent years have passed mandatory pre-payment rules. You can't J-walk and now you will have to pre-pay to get gas, what is coming next?

Dispending Driver Information
A South Dakota Law enacted in February allows retailers- or, more specifically, the ones quick enough to record a suspect's license-plate number- to obtain contact info from the police to seek reimbursement as well as service charges and any court costs. This sounds to me very much like a pre curser to the Patriot act.

Sticking To Full Service
Pilfering at the pump is not a problem in New Jersey and Oregon, which are strictly full service. Customers have not been able to pump their own gas in those places for over a half-century. Do you think that the other states will ever catch on?

As long as you have a car you will have to buy gas. That is just part of the luxury of having a car. People are cutting down, as far as weekend getaway's and unnecessary trips. But all in all with the largest US port now under water, and the price of shipping oil from other countries now doubled it looks like a new generation may get to see gas rations stamps for the first time again