CNN reports that Nashville, TN has run out of gas, after local motorists became convinced that the city was running out of gas, which it then did. “Everybody has just gone nuts,” Mike Williams, executive director of the Tennessee Petroleum Council, told the network. Williams said drivers were bird-dogging gas trucks and lines at some stations were “a mile long.” He said fuel was continuing to enter the city; pipelines were working and barges were coming in. Stories on iReport (take that as you will) chronicle shortages in Asheville, NC, Marietta, GA and Buckhead. Speaking to Forbes, Carol Gifford from the AAA Carolinas office said that some stations may be totally out of gas, while others may have trouble getting certain grades of gasoline. “So what motorists see, is a gas station that once had an outage now has gas. They only have it for a day or so, and then they are out again. That will probably continue until more refineries are back up and operating,” Gifford said. As TTAC pointed-out after hurricane Katrina knocked-out refineries, the big problem is that there’s no one federal standard for gasoline blends. A patchwork of state mandates guarantees supply disruptions when refining capacity is curtailed. Way to go regulators.
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A single formula for motor fuels would be helpful to our economy, no doubt. Those “economies of scale” are a beautiful thing when you’re talking commodities.
There were reports of a gas station in my hometown (in Tennessee) where the owner was intentionally shutting down her pumps even though there was still gas left. A couple other gas station owners have circulated talk about the same woman calling them and trying to get them to do the same, which would have virtually choked off all gasoline supply and raised prices even more astronomically than they were already raised as a result of Hurricane Ike.
Of course, as usually happens with our small-town media, the rumors have gone un-investigated. In fact, they’ve mostly been dismissed as just that: Rumors. But if this kind of thing goes on in my town of 3,000, it makes you wonder about any sort of gas “shortage” collusion in other small towns across Tennessee and the rest of the South.
For what it’s worth, however, no gas shortage is going on in my town so far this week. Regular is finally back down below $4, after teetering between $3.99 and $4.19 a gallon since Ike.
Sure regulation has a part to play but it’s the panic that does the most. I remember this happening in Gas Crisis II® when folks would fill up when they only needed a quarter of a tank. That ripples down to the people who are actually out. There isn’t enough capacity to fill up every one driving around with half a tank of gas and want to fill up.
The day the hurricane hit Texas I was running errands in Franklin (just south of Nashville) and was going to hit Costco and get gas before heading home. The news stations must have found a story! The lines were 20+ deep and were snaked all the way around the parking lot. In my 6 years of living in this area, I’ve never seen cars more than 2 deep waiting at that station. Good thing I never let my tank get below 1/2! I went home.
This sort of hilarity has continued ever since, and really has become a self fullfilling (ha!) prophecy. Some of my family was in for a visit last weekend. On the way out of town they tried to get gas at the Flying J (Conoco station) in Fairview. At 11:30pm at night, lines were about 10 deep per pump, and the old guy ahead of them was filling 10 of those little red lawnmower gas cans in his trunk. I guess he had some mowing to do at midnight? Hope he didn’t get rear ended! The apocalypse – is it…now?
People really are the funniest animal of all.
Same deal here in Atlanta. I heard about it yesterday and checked out stations on the drive home and in this morning. Out, out, out. I did catch one with gas and although not packed it was busy. I’m on 1/2 tank ;)
A lot of this here in Alabama, too.
The sad part is that the simplest measure to ensure a station doesn’t run short (that is, raising prices as stock levels become critical) makes the station owner subject of investigation from our overactive AG’s office.
I’m against this so-called “price gouging” when it’s done to people undergoing a crisis, but selectively pricing fuel higher can ensure people either: (a)buy from you only in dire necessity or (b)just buy a couple gallons and move along down the road. This would help ensure the stations maintain their supplies and that the citizens have somewhere to go in a pinch.
Outages are bad for everyone, but they’re enabled by asinine, knee-jerk gouging laws that don’t make sense under every circumstance.
ash78> I have been posting this to ireport all along. People feel they have the _RIGHT_ to buy gas as close to home as possible at sub $4/gallon.
When the news reports there is a shortage, shortage or not, people are going to hoard! To protect against hoarding, prices need to be raised or you have to ration.
if they are out at $3.50 gallon, might there be some left at $10/gallon ? $20/gallon?
I’d MUCH rather get say, 2 gallons @ $20/gallon so I can go to the grocery store once a week rather than have NO gas to buy PERIOD.
Of course people want it both ways…no price raising and infinite supply. I guess most people on irpeort have not finished 8th grade (that is when I took economics)
Robstar
I can’t speak for ireport, but the local news (I watch every morning) is killing me. Every morning they go from telling us about stations that have been dry for over a week…and then, topically enough, telling us to report any price gouging to the Attorney General’s hotline (which has been redefined since Hurricane Ivan in ’04. Something like “more than 40% higher than the previous year’s average” or some other arbitrary amount)
I remember the lines at gas stations in Warner Robins the day before Katrina made landfall. At one intersection, where two stations are caddy-cornered, the cars were out in the street, causing gridlock in every direction. It was quite comedic. My son said the rumor going around his school was that “Bush was going to turn off the pumps.”
Fast forward to Ike, and the hilarity continues.
We have had gas outages here in Asheville NC since the Tuesday after hurricane Gustav. We get all our gas from the Colonial Pipeline from Louisiana. Most of the those refineries are running but at limited capacity.
There are no refineries in NC SC GA FL VA WV and only one in western TN.There is one in WV, but it is so small it does not matter.
The gas station across the street that normally has the best prices and is the busiest has not had gas for 14 days.
We are/were planning a little driving vacation to the NC coast, not sure now. I do not want to be stranded for days somewhere waiting for gas. Getting stuck somewhere you want to be is not bad. Getting stuck at a highway interchange is a nightmare.
It could continue for another 2 weeks.
Luckily? I am unemployed and do not need to drive anywhere….I think?
Here’s a thought: instead of wringing our hands how about doing something?
Google your state senator’s websites, along with your congressional representative and send each two emails with the following words in the topic line….which may be all that gets noted, but still counts:
single nationwide gasoline formula
and
expedite permits for new refineries immediately
You can go ahead and expound on the rest of your thoughts, but probably the hits on the topic are what they are tracking.
It WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
If you can’t make the effort, quit bitching.
With the exception of about a $.10 per gallon price raise, I have seen absolutely no evidence of a gasoline shortage here in Austin. San Antonio and Dallas report even lower prices than Austin by a few cents, which is normal.
One gasoline formula is long overdue….and here the lawmakers are CONSIDERING allowing all states to individually set emission standards?! Talk about an even larger expense.
Beyond that, the gouging laws should go. Its self regulating people! If Joes Gas thinks he can charge $10/gallon after a hurricane, let him do it. Chances are there are another 5 stations within a few miles who WON’T charge $10 a gallon. Joes Gas will have to drop his price or nobody will be shopping with him. Collusion does need to be kept an eye on. You can’t have all the stations in town talking to each other to set a fixed $10/gallon price….
I’m always amazed at how the general public reacts to things. It really is an “if everyone else is doing it, I better do it or I’m gonna miss out!” mentality. Think about housing….buy now or prices will be too high for you to afford it! Or that stupid rice shortage several months ago. “oh, crap, there’s supposedly a rice shortage! I’d better go get 50 lbs at Costco even though I eat rice once a month, otherwise there won’t be any rice!” Same with gas. If everyone would just chill out and get gas when they need it, like they normally do (and stations could adjust their prices based on supply), we wouldn’t be having a problem here. Chances are the people who are playing it cool, watching their driving, and not trying to fill up every 5 blocks are probably doing just fine.
As a Frenchman (France being a very centralized state) living in the US, I really enjoy the concept of federation and the fact that each state has important legislative powers. However, in some cases, national (or for that matter, international) standards would really help…
I wonder how much fuel is wasted idling in line…
I live in Atlanta and work in Marietta. I noticed this morning that all the stations I passed in Marietta had regular, but no other grades. All the stations were pretty busy, but no lines more than a car or two deep. Yesterday, I had to drive past about 6 stations to find one with gas, and they were limiting people to $20 @ $3.99/gal, so I only got just under 1/2 tank. The local media is saying it should be pretty normal by the end of the week. Hopefully, they are right.
Weather is nice here, so I’ll probably ride the bike the rest of the week.
While visiting Durham NC area weekend before last, could only get 10 gallons.
The Palm Beach County Costcos are banning the filling of boats (which is a big part of their business) and limiting people to one gas can, but no limit on filling autos.
Classic “bank run” mentality at work. I regularly get text messages from others here in Marietta announcing that a station has gas and that I’d better get out and get some before it’s too late.
Sadly, this problem (like many others in our nation) could have been minimized or avoided by some mature, forward-looking leadership from Washington over the last 20 years.
Even though there are no quick-fixes for today, let’s hope we’re smart enough to lay the groundwork now for the *next* 20 years.
Right now it’s not even hoarding or panic. There simply is no gas, and this is over a week after Ike hit.
I filled up before the Ike-hike struck (we were seeing $5.00/gal gas) and needed to fill up again on Sunday night. The first four gas stations I approached (including Wal-Mart and Ingles) had *no* gas. I finally found one that *only* had Regular.
There are some serious infrastructure issues. Ironically, relatives living up north (who usually pay way more for gas) and got hit by the winds of Ike’s aftermath saw little change.