Southern Gas Shortage Hard On Drivers

Hurricane-Induced Shortage Triggers Filling Station Lines, Price Gouging Throughout Region

(CBS/AP)  Motorists are rising before dawn so they can be at the filling station when the delivery truck arrives. Some are skipping work or telecommuting. Others are taking the extreme step - for Atlanta - of switching to public transportation.

Across a section of the South, a hurricane-induced gasoline shortage that was expected to last only a few days is dragging into its third week, and experts say it could persist into mid-October. The Atlanta area has been hit particularly hard, along with Nashville and western North Carolina.

Those lucky enough to find gas are paying more than drivers elsewhere around the country.

"I've used up gas just looking for gas," said Larry Jenkins, a construction worker who pulled his red pickup truck into a Citgo station in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday. The sign said $3.99 a gallon, but the pumps were closed. Many filling stations in the area have not had gas for days.

"Right now, I'll pay anything for gas," Jenkins said. "I don't care if it's $5 or $6 a gallon. I need it."

The shortage started with the one-two punch of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which shut down refineries along the Gulf Coast. Now, more than two weeks after Ike, many refineries are still making fuel at reduced levels.

While other parts of the country get gasoline from a variety of domestic and overseas sources, the Southeast relies heavily on two pipelines that carry fuel from the Gulf of Mexico. Because the gasoline moves at just 3 to 5 mph, it can take up to 10 days to reach Atlanta.

A tendency among panicky drivers in the hardest-hit areas to top off their tanks every time they pass an open station has only made matters worse.

"Fuel is coming back into the system, but as soon as it comes in, it's being sucked back out by consumers who are afraid the shortage is going to continue," said Ben Brockwell of the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J.

In the meantime, government agencies have postponed public hearings, community colleges have canceled classes, and some companies have provided vans for carpooling or encouraged employees to work from home.

Hours-long lines, "No gas" signs and plastic bags covering fuel-pump nozzles are familiar sights around Atlanta, where drivers have become intimately familiar with fuel delivery schedules, rising before daybreak when they know gas is coming to a certain station.

"I was just in Atlanta yesterday. There is no gasoline in Atlanta, in Charlotte, in Chattanooga. It's like a Third World country," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Sunday on ABC.

Police officers and a security guard were on hand to manage the flow of cars at a downtown Atlanta gas station around midday Monday.

And in North Carolina, a man was arrested for allegedly pulling a gun on another driver who supposedly cut ahead of him in line while they waited for gas, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann.

Kathy Burdett, 49, of Forest Park, said the shortage ruined her weekend plans to visit Stone Mountain with out-of-town guests.

"I didn't go anywhere all weekend and we kept close to home," said Burdett, who had to hunt for the gasoline her friends needed to make it home to Tennessee.

The average price for regular gas Monday was $3.94 per gallon in Georgia, 30 cents higher than the national average, according to the AAA. Motorists were paying an average of $3.89 a gallon Monday in North Carolina and $3.80 in South Carolina.

Authorities in North Carolina and Tennessee said they were investigating reports of price-gouging. Likewise in Georgia, where the state's consumer affairs office has subpoenaed sales records from 130 gas stations to see whether the trend of panic buying led greedy station owners to take drivers for a ride. One such station was allegedly selling gas for $8.49 a gallon, Strassmann reports.

Even in Atlanta, a city notorious for long commutes and traffic, some drivers were turning to public transportation. Although the MARTA bus and subway system did not have ridership numbers for September, a spokeswoman said parking lots at stations were busier than usual.

As she waited in a gas line at an Atlanta station, 27-year-old Kasheeda Washington said she planned to start taking the bus because driving from her home in suburban Marietta to two jobs in Atlanta and to classes at the downtown campus of Georgia State University had become too expensive.

"I would have never thought this day would come when I would have to wait for gas," she said.

[emelder]

No gas again today in Atlanta, Charlotte, or Chattanooga ... of course, Bush is not responsible for a hurricane, but why are he and the Republicans SO far behind on contingency planning? This is his/their administration and they keep getting PLANNING issues wrong: Katrina, Iraq, Afghanistan, budget deficit, No Child Left Behind. Wall Street bailout crisis, you name it. Bush/Cheney, Palin/McCain are clueless. We need real leadership in the Executive Branch ... it''s Obama time!!!

[petro49l]

America needs coal mines, oil fields, and to turn the shale into gasoline. George W. Bush is the willing lackey of the Saudis. Why bow to OPEC''s cartel? The environment improves when the fossil fuels are removed. The U.S. should not be fooled by Al Gore''s hallucinatory schizophrenia. Oil Corporations could lease with Central and South American Governments to drill petroleum.

[jlagat]

Southerners voted for Bush... Southerners getting what they deserve.

[easeup-2009]

Posted by zredhot at 02:13 PM : Oct 01, 2008

I posted this before, now go wipe your nose:


It''''s very simple. The demand for gasoline has risen dramatically over the last decade or so and the capacity to refine oil has remained the same. In fact, there hasn''''t been a new refinery built in this country in over 30 years.

The supply/demand ratio is extremely tight right now, so any disruption will have an effect.

If anyone wants to play the blame game, you can start with who''''s been blocking new refinery construction.

[easeup-2009]

I think zredhot''''s point was government sets the standards for gas mileage and emissions and so forth and the car companies will do the minimal when designing and engineering to meet those standards.

Posted by Displeased at 04:14 PM : Oct 01, 2008

I think if he wore a real tall hat he could hide his point.

[displeased]

Who do you think decides what types of engines and vehicles are made for the US? The government! Which leads to Bush!
Get a clue...
Posted by zredhot at 02:20 PM : Oct 01, 2008

Are you kidding? The government designs the engines & the cars?? Not the automakers????
Posted by easeup

I think zredhot''s point was government sets the standards for gas mileage and emissions and so forth and the car companies will do the minimal when designing and engineering to meet those standards.

[docpeter1953]

Would you support a new refinery next door to where you live? ----------------------------------------
------------- Posted by docpeter1953


Not if it interferes with the new prison!

Posted by TheVicar1 at 01:25 PM : Oct 01, 2008

___________________

No, it will be on the other side of your house, caticorner to the new nuclear power plant across the street.

[alphamare909]

I am in Red Bank outside of Chattanooga, TN. We have no gas of any kind within 10 miles on here. ALL the local stations seemed to run out of gas on the same day within a few hours of each other last week.

We call neighbors to find gas or ask when deliveries are made. We all dash out to get $20 worth. Yet, in North GA in Ft. Oglethorpe, there is gas available. you are on fumes, a 20 miles drive is not an option.

It is not a matter of everyone filling up; it is not a matter of my "gas guzzleing" van that gets 26MPG in town. It is a matter that we have FULL gas storage tanks on Bonnie Oaks Drive here in Chattanooga. They will not provide the fuel that the local stations need on a timely basis. The local gas stations have to run completely out and then order more fuel. The suppliers, on Bonnie Oaks, then send what they feel like sending. Perhaps a full tanker, perhaps 1/4 full. We "Chattanoogans" were told by the local media (TV and radio) that Colonial Pipelines (that provides our fuel to the storage tanks) were running at 90% capacity from the gulf only 5 days after Ike went through. Yet we are struggling to get to work, church and shopping.

We pay from $3.84 to $4.56 per gallon for regular - when we can find it. The distributors price gouged before the Hurricane and are doing the same now. Stations were told that the fuel they bought would be .50 to $1.00 more a gallon and they could pay it or do without.

I am riding my horse to work tomorrow.

[florenzo3]

i think the government needs to do something about encouraging and speeding up renewable energy...we are depending too much on oil and its hurting us.

Lorenzo
www.welcometoinsurance.com

[easeup-2009]

Who do you think decides what types of engines and vehicles are made for the US? The government! Which leads to Bush!
Get a clue...

Posted by zredhot at 02:20 PM : Oct 01, 2008

Are you kidding? The government designs the engines & the cars?? Not the automakers????

The fact that you''re going to vote scares me a little.....