Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett has promised that his office "will not hesitate to prosecute those responsible" for gasoline price gouging.

That is good news.

But a legitimate question is whether Corbett's office has the manpower and resources to adequately investigate the chaotic gasoline situation that has quickly evolved in this state in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Gov. Ed Rendell was right in observing that "what happened in the gulf is the greatest natural disaster in this country's history, and we shouldn't let profiteering occur as a result of it."

But it would seem that price gouging is in fact greatly in play not only in Pennsylvania but also in other areas of the United States. According to the governor, in Pennsylvania, as of Friday, gasoline supplies had not been disrupted and the state wasn't experiencing gasoline shortages. Nevertheless, stations Thursday began a frenzied increase of their gasoline prices for fuel already in their tanks.

If the station down the street increased its prices, the station up the street implemented a similar increase.

Some motorists who pulled into stations where the sign read 299.9 for regular-grade fuel, for example, were left waiting to have their pumps "authorized" until the price on the pumps could be changed. And, there was no tanker truck in sight.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services won price-gouging settlements from about 60 gasoline stations that had boosted prices by as much as 50 cents a gallon in the hours after the attacks. Those settlements produced about $101,000 in fines.

In the wake of Katrina, Butler County motorists have experienced gasoline price increases of about $1 a gallon, with plenty of fuel available.

Something serious is wrong with that picture.

Corbett shouldn't let down the state's motorists in his pursuit of gougers. But at the same time motorists also should do what they can to limit their fuel use during this situation.

The troubling aspect of Rendell's Thursday announcement about possibly suspending the 30-cents-per-gallon state gasoline tax is that, if indeed gouging is currently rampant, it would give the gougers an additional 30-cent window to "play" with.