Jacking up prices when people are going through rough times is EVIL. Free market or not.
First off....who is going thru a "rough time" or a hurricane in KY? As that is what the article is about.
Secondly..."speculators" have had little IF anything to do with this story.
Not so evil when you consider that the gas station owner/operator is also going thru a "tough time".
He's got to pay for his next 5,000 gallon tank -- at what will probably still be an inflated price (because his distributor is coping with the same supply problem). That's if he can get any at all, of course. And, if he can't, his business (and family) will have to go without.
So, what would you have him do? Give it away? At a loss? And run out even sooner?
When there is a disparity between demand and supply, prices rise so as to ration the product. That's what the free market system you abhor does -- better than any government rationing system ever could.
Just because there's an Exxon sign out front doesn't mean that the guy who owns/runs the station isn't trying to run a profitable business, pay his bills and feed his family.