Dear Editor,

Price gouging when catastrophes hit – it’s illegal, not to mention unethical, to raise prices of necessary items.

At 7 a.m. Friday, gas was around $3.59 a gallon. By 11 a.m. it was $3.99, and by 4 p.m. it was $4.65 at some stations between Birmingham and Montgomery.

If we don’t put up with business who charge $3,000 for a $500 generator, why do we put up with the gas corporations and their antics?

I’m not saying the local businesses are to blame. They have to buy their fuel from a larger business.

I’m saying the government and the large fuel companies are to blame. The fuel companies want us to believe that they aren’t making a profit. If earning a few billion dollars last year wasn’t earning a profit, then I’d like to not earn a profit either.

– Pamela Bearden, Maplesville