“It’s not that we have a gasoline shortage,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. “We have this supply crunch, and things will be back to normal soon.”
Across the Southeast, long lines have formed at gas stations, and fuel pumps have run dry as people have scurried to fill their tanks in case of disruptions.
Granholm compared the run on gasoline to the frenzied purchasing at the start of the coronavirus pandemic last spring, which cleaned out stores’ supplies of several common household items.
“Much as there was no cause for, say, hoarding toilet paper at the beginning of the pandemic, there should be no cause for hoarding gasoline,” Granholm said.
The Colonial Pipeline company has notified the federal government that it will be able to make a full restart decision by the close of business Wednesday.
“But even after that decision is made, it will take a few days to ramp up operations,” Granholm said. “This pipeline has never been shut down before; it travels great distances.”
The federal government has been in touch with governors in the affected areas.
“They’re obviously, understandably concerned with reports of gas stations running out of fuel, and they want this pipeline restarted, as do we all,” Granholm said. “We’re using these conversations and that information to inform the federal decision-making around steps to mitigate these supply impacts and disruptions.”
North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and southern Virginia will be the areas most affected in the near term, while the federal government explores other options for increasing supply in those areas until the shuttered pipeline resumes at full capacity.
Department of Transportation regulations were loosened over the weekend to increase capacity to transport gasoline, diesel and jet fuel via tankers, and officials are considering a waiver of the Jones Act that would allow foreign-flagged ships to transfer fuel from the Gulf of Mexico to the Northeast.
The pipeline, which stretches from Texas to New Jersey, has been shuttered since last Friday after a ransomware cyberattack.
The Biden administration has indicated that it believes hackers in Russia were behind the attack, but there is no evidence that the hacking was linked to the Russian government.
Consumers who suspect that businesses are engaging in price gouging by artificially raising fuel prices should report the cases to their state’s attorney general.
