Hurricane Ike Led to Landfall in Galveston,Texas in September 2008

Hurricane Ike led to landfall in Galveston,Texas in September 2008.One effect of Ike was to disrupt gasoline supplies,especially to stations in the southeast United States,many of which were unable to raise the price of their gasoline due to legislated anti-price gouging laws.Consequently,people waited for up to four hours for gasoline,provided they were able to find a station that had gasoline to sell.The effect of these anti-price gouging statutes is:

A) to make consumers better off since there is no cost to spend time waiting in line.
B) to ensure that the marginal utility of gasoline across all consumers in a region is equal.
C) to allocate gasoline so that those who value it most are able to get some.
D) to allocate gasoline to those who value it less at the expense of those who value it more.