There are 149 refineries in the United States, all working at high capacity around the clock to pump out enough gas and diesel to meet ever-increasing demand. When all parts work as designed, everyone gets what they need, when they need it. It’s a nice system. But when the unexpected happens, like one part getting knocked out or a hurricane disrupting supply on the Gulf Coast, it causes problems.
The Colonial Pipeline is one of the most essential pipelines in the country. It runs all the way from Houston up to New York/New Jersey and supplies gasoline to about 50 million people along the East Coast – about 40% of the total gasoline for all of those people. Any shutdown of the pipeline is a considerable threat to the consistent gasoline supplies that these people need.
It only took a few days for the supply disruption to affect gas prices in the Southeast. Five states – Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina – were reporting substantial gas shortages as of September 19th, with many stations running out completely. Gas prices have spiked about 15-20 cents a gallon in those areas. For other customers in the Northeast, they aren’t seeing nearly the same effect because they can get gas from other areas. The Southeast, unfortunately, is out of luck.
Fuel producers have had to scramble to figure out alternatives to get fuel where it needs to go. Ships are being pressed into service to move gas from Texas up to New York. And they’re running as many tanker trucks out there as possible. But these are a lot more expensive ways to move gasoline than the pipeline is.
When will this whole thing be resolved? They’ve got over 700 people currently to dig out parts of the area and help construct an alternative pipeline to re-reroute the gas supply. But experts don’t anticipate the problem being fixed until next week at the earliest. So we will all watch and pray.