Dirtier-burning gas OK’d for metro Atlanta

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | September 22, 2008 | Stacy Shelton

[Night Conservative]

As metro Atlantans sputtered through another day of long lines, spot shortages and panicked buying at the gas pumps, the federal government on Tuesday waived the region’s smog-busting gasoline requirements in an attempt to boost supplies.

But Gov. Sonny Perdue, who requested the waiver, does not expect it to solve the region’s overall gas shortage. That could take up to two weeks as refineries in the Gulf of Mexico continue to ramp back up after two hurricanes.

[Question Liberal Authority]

It's completely ridiculous that there are something like 200 different blends of gasoline in the USA, and that a given city can only use a certain blend during a given time of the year.

If a formula is "clean" enough for, say, Tampa, it ought to be "clean" enough for Atlanta. Even if the EPA is going to mandate a certain level of "cleanliness", it ought to assign a number grade to every blend of gasoline and let service stations stock whatever meets or exceeds the standard for their particular region.

[Lockbox]

thank the environmentalist for no new refineries in the last 30 years........... remember to vote for Obama if you like limited gasoline.

[topher]

The problem is that even if a tanker ship were to deliver gasoline, it takes two weeks lead time for that to occur.

Basically, by the time the tanker ship arrives (from Europe) with more gasoline, the Texas-Louisiana refineries should be online and back in full production.

The United States has no spare capacity for refining oil into gasoline-diesel-jp2 and other products. Last major refinery was built in 1976.

Why don't the SEC East built a couple of refineries (Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, etc).

If there was a spare million barrels of capacity (and pipeline to distribute in those states), then there would be no gas lines.

After Hurricane Katrina-Rita combo (which only affected about 20% of the Nation's production, there was talk of building new refineries on abandoned military bases.

Now there is a pair of Hurricanes (Gustav-Ike) that affect 40% of the nation's refinery capacity.

If Hurricane Ike would have been Cat 4 or 5 with a large storm surge, Atlanta would not currently have gasoline, and Florida/Georgia/Carolinas would be fighting each other for what little gasoline supply their would be...