Gasoline Shortages Continue On Friday (Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania)

NBC10.com ^ | April 21, 2006

[Bloodclot]

Gas stations in three East Coast states ran out of fuel on Thursday as gas prices soared. Shortages were reported in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania starting on Thursday afternoon. They could last as long as 30 days.

NBC 10 was live at one gas station when the pumps went dry at rush hour.

Catherine Rossi, a spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, says she knows of eight stations in the Philadelphia region that were out of fuel yesterday.

Wayne Hummel of Liberty Petroleum says there's a derth of fuel in the New York and Philadelphia areas. He says four of the 40 stations Liberty supplies in the Philadelphia region ran out of fuel in the last two days.

Refiners are switching to fuel formulations containing corn-based ethanol, prompted by the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005. To do that, retailers must clean their tanks, remove all water and install extremely fine filters on their pumps. Terminals have to clean storage tanks, too.

An NBC 10 news team was at a Wilmington, Del., gas station on Thursday afternoon, where reporter Bill Baldini informed drivers pulling up to the pumps that the station was on empty.

On Thursday night, reporter Kristen Welker had the same experience at a Northern Liberties gas station. Closer to home for NBC10.com, a Luk Oil station just blocks from our station was out of gas as news trucks hit the street to report the Thursday afternoon news.

Stations in New Jersey and in several other Pennsylvania areas are also out of fuel, or only selling premium fuel, AAA told NBC 10.

Rossi said the shortages were expected to be temporary.

By temporary, AAA and other experts said the shortage situation could last for as long as 30 days.

The news was unwelcome to drivers who saw a big jump at the gas pumps recently.

On Thursday morning, NBC 10 reported that prices at some local gas stations had hit $3 per gallon.

An NBC 10 news van stopping in Conshohocken, Pa., saw gas selling for $3.09 for a gallon of regular unleaded at a local station.

Don't expect those prices to go down in the near future.

Overseas on Thursday, crude oil prices hit a new record intraday high of $72.49 after weekly data showed a drop in U.S. gasoline stocks.

This is raising worries that refiners don't have an adequate inventory cushion ahead of the peak summer driving season.

The previous record intraday price, set Wednesday, was $72.40 a barrel.

[Bloodclot]

Is it time to start drilling now?

[saganite]

No, it's time to stop producing these idiotic boutique fuels. If it takes 30 days to shift gears so refineries can comply with the loony tunes environmental requirements then it's time to change the rules.

[linear]

I've noticed it is increasingly difficult to find regular gasoline here in Dallas. Premium is plentiful however.

[Dasaji]

Not only that, but how much internal damage will ethanol create in vehicles that *weren't* designed for its use? There was a post on here yesterday that a FReeper had $700 worth of repairs after he filled up with gas containing ethanol.

[rhombus]

How about both: drilling AND some standardization on the boutique fuels? As well as drilling, how about making it easier to proceed with a wide variety of energy production: nuclear, coal, etc? Wars have to be fought on many fronts.

[angkor]

there's a derth of fuel in the New York and Philadelphia areas.

A strange story that doesn't go one bit toward explaining why there's an apparent "shortage" on the wholesale market.

As for the retailers, presumably some kind of state-mandated price controls are keeping them from matching prices with supply and demand. Otherwise they woudn't be running out.

[Huck]

Haven't seen any shortages in northern NJ. There was a run on some gas stations the week New Orleans flooded, but that was just people trying to get cheaper gas while it lasted. I just filled up last night. I wait until it's almost completely empty. These prices are rough. But it could be worse.

[FReepaholic]

...There was a post on here yesterday that a FReeper had $700 worth of repairs after he filled up with gas containing ethanol...

Here's his post:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1618379/posts

[Shannon]

Last night I watched Anderson Cooper's show. It had a long segment on Brazil and said when the gas shortages hit in 1975 (yes, over 30 years ago) Brazil started putting money & research into alternative fuel. Today their cars run mainly on ethanol and by year Brazil will be "energy independent". I was amazed.

[mware]

How about dropping the gasoline tax to help us common folks get through this dry spell.

[Shannon]

Correction:
They said by next year they'll be energy independent.

[AmericaUnited]

Thanks Jimmy PEANUT BRAIN! Your duplicitous treachery in helping overthrow the Shah is still haunting us.

[tobyhill]

Gas is going to be the Republican lead congresses downfall unless something happens fast. Almost everyone here on FR understands supply, demand and market forces but for the average American they could care less about any of that when they see gas companies making record profit and one CEO making $400 million for leaving. ANWR would help but that won't be any consolation for the public who still sees record profits. The oil and gas companies better try something because if the Rats get control there will be caps and windfall profit taxes.

[LambSlave]

Is it time to start drilling now?

It's time to start buying up short calls on "Big Oil" /unrepentent capitalist enthusiasm off-- can't turn it off...

[Roccus]

Did Cooper disclose his holdings in Archer Daniels Midland?

[greasepaint]

Republicans are slitting their own throats,
with these goofy gasoline chvnges.

about ethanol, it can loosen crud in
the gas tank, causing problems

[Ace of Spades]

If we had kept our own programs going in the mid-80's, rather than gobble up that 60-cent gas, we'd probably be there by now too.

[randita]

I was just reading about Brazil's ethanol program. First of all, its start up was almost entirely government funded (multi-billions of $$$) -- including huge subsidies to sugar producers - which continue. Which leads to the second point. Ethanol made from sugar is 30% cheaper to produce than that made from corn. We do not have a sugar industry in the U.S. anymore so sugar would have to be imported. Brazil has the perfect climate for growing sugar. Or we'd have to use corn entirely, which would make the price more expensive.

Lastly, cars will not operate in cold climates with gas containing more than 10% ethanol. This is the one real problem as a large majority of U.S. citizens live in climates which remain cold for half the year.

Sometimes reports only tell you the positive points and you have to go looking for the rest of the info.

Not that this might be a partial solution to our energy problems, but it is not a cure all and gas with ethanol will be more expensive than what we are paying now.

[backhoe]

Allow me to drop out of Lurk and Link Mode for a brief bit of commentary- we all need to get serious about our dependency on foreign sources of energy, and use our own resources.

Our consumer-based economy is driven by and dependent on readily-available, reliable energy-- choke that off, and we'll all be back to using one rotary dial phone in the dining room, watching one TV, and driving one car per family-- probably a Hudson Hornet or a Rambler...

We need to

1) end the nonsensical ban on offshore drilling off California and Florida--read & weep:
Castro Plans to Drill 45 Miles from US Shores, But We Can't

2) build a lot of next-generation nuclear power plants, not just for electricity, but for any process requiring heat, power, or steam.

3) end Jimmy Carter's idiotic ban on recycling nuclear waste, and reprocess the stuff rather than fighting over where to bury it. Europe has done this for decades.-- what to do with spent nuclear fuel? Answer here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1468321/posts?page=50#50 hattip:  Mike (former Navy Nuclear Engineer)

4) use the 300-500 years worth of coal we have on our own land, using the new clean-coal technology.
-Clean Coal Centre--

5) and finally, there's nothing wrong with conservation, we should all practice it- but you can't conserve your way out of a shortage. Nor is there anything wrong with "alternative" energy sources- except they don't supply the vast ( not to mention readily-available ) amounts of power we need at a price competitive to more conventional sources.

We do need to get serious about this before we get strangled by a bunch of petty thieves and dictators who don't like us much.

My tongue-in-cheek collection of energy-related links:

Sticker Shock-$3 a gallon gas? Click the picture:

And kindly note, and note well-- the first reply to this post ( when gas was $1.45 a gallon ) was derisive... so, who's laughing now? My guess is $4.00 a gallon gas is next...