Did Uncle Sam cause high gas prices?

Critics say ill-timed legislation is partly responsible for prices at the pump, but others say the industry should have seen what was coming.

NEW YORK – As gasoline prices spiral upward ahead of the high-demand summer season, some traders and consumer advocates are laying at least part of the blame squarely on the doorstep of the federal government.

While near-record crude prices account for nearly 60 percent of the cost of making gasoline, and unabated demand from U.S. drivers has done nothing to ease prices, part of the run-up has to do with problems with switching from one type of gasoline additive to another.

The switch is happening because lawmakers didn’t include liability protections for makers of MTBE, a cancer-causing additive easily soluble in water that has been the subject of several lawsuits, when they enacted an energy bill last August.

So refiners are scrambling to switch to ethanol, a corn-based additive that also makes fuel cleaner burning, which is required in most major metropolitan markets. But with just six months to make the switch, supplies of ethanol and the trucks and rail cars needed to bring it to market are stretched, which has helped push gasoline futures to their highest level in over six months and prices at the pump closer to the $3 a gallon mark.

CNN/Money