âFuel is coming,â expert says as people panic buy gas
Panic buying at the gas pump By Lydia Nusbaum | May 12, 2021 at 6:41 PM CDT - Updated May 12 at 6:51 PM
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - Alabama is not facing a shortage of gasoline, according to Bart Fletcher, president of the Petroleum and Convenience Marketers of Alabama.
People in the southeast began to panic buy gasoline after the Colonial Pipeline shutdown for several days. As of Wednesday evening, the pipeline said it is restarting pipeline operations.
Fletcher said the panic and rush to pump is creating an artificial shortage.
âWeâve seen the public create a shortage of a product that there was really absolutely no reason for a shortage of that particular product to occur,â Fletcher said.
The Roanoke Valley has had an ally this week in the fuel shortage emergency: a local branch of the PPL, formerly the Plantation Pipe Line, which links Louisiana refineries with
The largest gasoline pipeline in the U.S. is returning to service, recovering from a cyberattack late Friday that sent pump prices surging and triggered shortages across the Eastern U.S.
The Colonial Pipeline â a critical source of gasoline and diesel for the New York area and the rest of the East Coast â began to resume fuel shipments around 5 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, the Alpharetta, Georgia-based operating company said in a statement. Itâs unclear how long it will take for supplies to come back to normal, though. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Tuesday it would take days to fully restore supplies after the restart, and Colonial warned the line may go down again from time to time while itâs in the process of restarting.
The Colonial Pipeline a critical source of gasoline and diesel for the New York area and the rest of the East Coast began to resume fuel shipments around 5 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, the Alpharetta, Georgia-based operating company said in a statement. It’s unclear how long it will take for supplies to come back to normal, though. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Tuesday it would take days to fully restore supplies after the restart, and Colonial warned the line may go down again from time to time while it’s in the process of restarting.
“Resumption of flows is the start, but the race to logistically replenish retail gas stations is the next step,” said Michael Tran, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “The restarting of the Colonial pipeline is the beginning of the end of the crisis, not the end.”