Gas stations in the Southeast are running out of fuel as people panic buy
Outages were also reported in South Carolina (13.4%), Florida (4.2%), Maryland (3.5%) and Tennessee (2.8%)
The supply crunch appears to be much worse in some major metro areas. GasBuddy reported outages impacting 71% of the stations in metro Charlotte, nearly 60% in Atlanta and 72% in Raleigh.
Meanwhile, average prices at the pump climbed above the key psychological milestone of $3 a gallon on Wednesday for the first time in more than six years, according to AAA.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm strongly urged Americans not to hoard gas during a White House press briefing Tuesday. She also called on gas station owners to “act responsibly” and avoid price gouging during the supply crunch.
“The American people can feel assured that this administration is working with the company to get it resumed as soon as possible, Granholm said.
Granolm said that Colonial expects to decide by the end of business Wednesday whether to make a full restart. “But even after that decision is made, it will take a few days to ramp up operations,” she said.
“This seems to be turning into a not-enough-truck-drivers-to-get-it-there story,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, wrote in a tweet.
Despite the supply shock, energy markets are not overreacting. RBOB gasoline futures ticked modestly higher Wednesday and remain up just slightly from Friday.
“East Coast gasoline is running scarce, but what is not moving there is building up on the Gulf Coast,” Michael Tran, RBC Capital’s director of global energy strategy, said in an email.