Earlier quoted context omitted.
You know what's way more effective at stopping gas hoarding so it's available for someone who really wants/needs it? Doubling the price per gallon. Anti-price gouging laws caused the shortage, just like with toilet paper and PPE last year.
Price of gold and silver is at its peak and people are buying it more than ever convinced it will somehow become extinct. The people who have money to hoard gas are also the people who have the money to hoard gas at double the price. These are not individuals with any knowledge of economics - theyre not doing it for trade, they're doing it out of belief.
Last year when all the grocery stores were running out of staples, I was unluckily traveling for work where there are no grocery stores. Upon returning, I conveniently found that my neighborhood co-op still had eggs because, while almost all eggs had been sold out, no one wanted to hoard $7.50/dz eggs, meaning I had the opportunity to get eggs if I really wanted them. I was able to buy eggs and did so, adjusting my habits accordingly to operate on fewer (but not zero) eggs. Everyone else who had visited that store had the same opportunity, and they also had the chance to compare their own desire for eggs against others' desires to recognize that they could do with fewer, as could I. At the end of the day, having reduced amounts of something I want is way less impactful than having none.
The only problem here is if gas stations talk to each other to set a price, but that is collusion, and is illegal independent of gouging laws.