The private gas companies are having a lot of problems getting it here; this isn’t happening on a land mass, but on islands (Manhattan, Long Island, Staten Island, NJ’s barrier islands) connected by bridges, tunnels, and roads with varying degrees of damage and congestion.
I agree they shouldn’t be competing with the private stations, but right now in NJ the government (police) is the only thing keeping order at the open gas stations. It isn’t hard to see it is for a “common good”.
OK, first of all, congestion has to be down because fewer people can drive because there is ... drum roll ... a gas shortage. Second, can you point to specific bridge closures? I have heard of tunnels being closed, but there are still a lot of bridges. And third, if the price of gas could be allowed to go up a couple of bucks per gallon, people would bitch, but companies in other states would have an incentive to send tankers full of gas, alleviating local problems getting gas from refineries to stations. Instead, there is a disincentive because distributors would have to eat the cost of shipping the gas.