Posted on 05/12/2021 7:48:31 AM PDT by blam
Gas stations from Florida to Virginia ran dry, and prices at the pump skyrocketed late Tuesday, as the hack attack on the biggest U.S. fuel pipeline extends into the fifth day.
On Tuesday evening, 17 states and Washington, DC declared emergency declarations to address fuel shortages.
The emergency declaration covers Alabama, Arkansas, D.C., Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
The Biden administration projected that the Colonial Pipeline would restart by the weekend and urged drivers not to panic hoard fuel.
“We are asking people not to hoard,” U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told reporters at the White House. “Things will be back to normal soon.”
Colonial has said progress is being made and expects to restart a large portion of the pipeline later this week into the weekend.
“Markets experiencing supply constraints and/or not serviced by other fuel delivery systems are being prioritized,” Colonial said in a statement.
Colonial Pipeline
A ransomware attack on Colonial last Friday underscores the vulnerability of critical U.S. infrastructure to cyberattacks, which has already resulted in people across the Southeast panic hoarding fuel.
Tracking firm GasBuddy reported widespread shortages of fuel at gas stations across southeastern states. For instance, it said 40% of filling stations across the Atlanta metro area without fuel.
GasBuddy shares fuel shortage data of other metros: ◾71% of stations in metro Charlotte are without gasoline.
◾Over 61% of Wilmington, NC gas stations are without gasoline.
◾72% of gas stations in metro Raleigh are without gasoline.
◾37% of Myrtle Beach gas stations are without gasoline.
◾Nearly 60% of stations in Norfolk are without gasoline.
◾Nearly 60% of gas stations in metro Atlanta are without gasoline, but that number has held steady since 1am or so.
◾Amongst AL, GA, FL, SC, NC, MD and VA, nearly 1,800 stations are currently out of gasoline.
As of midnight, GasBuddy shows the percentage of filling stations in each state without gasoline. ◾GA 15.4%
◾AL 1.8%
◾TN 2.8%
◾SC 13.4%
◾NC 24.8%
◾FL 4.2%
◾VA 15.0%
◾MD 3.5%
To mitigate even more shortages, the Biden administration said Tuesday it has started mulling over the idea of a temporary waiver of the Jones Act, a U.S. shipping law, to offset shortages.
The Environmental Protection Agency also issued an emergency fuel waiver on Tuesday for refiners to reformulate gasoline in the Mid-Atlantic area. The waiver extends through May 18 for fuel sold in Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Pennsylvania.
The attack on Colonial “is potentially the most substantial and damaging attack on U.S. critical infrastructure ever,” Ohio Senator Rob Portman told a Senate hearing on cybersecurity threats on Tuesday.
The FBI accused hack group DarkSide of the ransomware attack. The narrative already being spun is that the group is Russian or Eastern Europe. Besides Colonial, the hackers launched attacks on 24 other companies in various industries.
Colonial Pipeline told federal officials it would have a better idea when it will restart gasoline and diesel flows by late Wednesday. Let’s hope it’s by the end of this week or, at the latest, this weekend – because if shortages continue – people will get angry. Remember what happened when stores ran out of toilet paper during the pandemic?
Thank you Jimmy Carter Biden
I’m loving me some Joe Biden.
Masks forever.
Denial of service without proof of vax.
Critical race theory.
Abortions praised, encouraged, and trumpeted.
Untold numbers of genders.
Gas lines.
Food shortages.
FBI attacks on conservatives.
Open borders...illegals come on in, we welcome you.
Voting to be unlimited or unrestricted.
Canceling of conservative voices.
Birthing considered (to be) environmental terrorism.
BLM good. Cops bad.
Defund po po.
So many wonderful things, I don’t know where to even begin with the praise.
I've been expecting the Iranians to down the electrical grid for some time. I have a big propane generator and lots of propane for hurricanes and the Iranians.
(I can't remember when I picked the Iranians as the culprits)
well, you can't go too far wrong with that choice. They'll have at least a finger or a toe in whatever happens.
As a point of order, “The worse, the better” quote is attributed to Lenin.
Marxism is the most evil ideology, responsible for at least 150 million murders in the last century alone, and that isn’t counting the world wars, korea, viet nam, cambodia, china etc etc. The nazis were just a subset of the same totalitarian collectivist BS.
“Besides Colonial, the hackers launched attacks on 24 other companies in various industries.” You would think a good journalist would name the other 24 companies.
The Harris/Biden administration’s way of incentivizing people to buy electric cars? It’s easy to blame foreign hackers, but I no long put anything past DemocRATS when it comes to destroying our country and our way of life. Today’s Democratic Party is pure evil.
Because it was an inside job. But don't bother trying to prove it - reams of proof that the election was stolen have made no difference whatsoever.
Takes 15 days to move gas from Houston to New York...so it’s gonna get worse even if the problem was ‘solved’ today... Glad you were able to fill your tank...
One advantage to commies is having a totally diposable puppet as president. You can have destroy everything and then sacrifice the puppet President to the mob in the name of “solving” the crises with a new leader. Their solution will be to end the constitution and establish the glorious workers socialist state. It’s sort of a Hoover / FDR model, except Hoover wasn’t a puppet, he was just incompetent. But the same mechanics applied.
This has Green Raw Deal written all over it. What phone calls did Barak make over the weekend?
Waiting for some rednecks to start shooting each other over gas.
My son topped off and filled up a 5 gallon can this morning (north GA), there was a guy in front of him filling up a 50 gallon drum! I get stocking up, but to me it makes more sense to do it before a “crunch” lol
As soon as I heard about the hacked pipeline shutdown Saturday, I filled up the car. The current situation was entirely predictable.
The NY Times says no gas shortage and no lines.
Who am I to believe?....
#24 his vehicle later exploded from the gas fumes igniting...
Reminder: open all windows and wait until you get home to light that cigarette...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.