Problem getting gas? Rationing?

“OK, has anything been on the national news about this?

I heard from a fairly reliable source around here that petroleum wholesalers (is that the right term?) are having trouble getting gas, that the next delivery might be three days out for them.

And that they can monitor stations from their facility and that a lot of stations were flashing, as in "low on gas."

Any other words on this? Am slightly worried, what with heading off on a trip to South Dakota tomorrow night... and want to know what I can find out. Would not want to get out there and have huge problems getting gas!

The person who shared this info said, "Keep it half full, anyway."”

“I have been trying to keep it full all the time. It is a lot easier to put 10 to 15 bucks in each week other that 52 every other week.”

“Yeah, but I don't mean it that way. I mean, are we going to have real problems getting gas??? Period? As in, might we get stuck on an interstate and find places with no gas available, or only a set, small amount?”

“The problem in Atlanta is that the major pipeline that pumps gas to Altanta is in Orleans. Without power to get those pumps back up there will be no gas in the metro atlanta area in a few days unless that pipeline is restored.”

“It's amazing how rapidly a country grinds to a halt when the gas runs short. Happened in the UK a few years ago with the fuel price protest. Couple of days and the roads start to clear, and those that do drive start going very slowly.”

“I have not heard anything in our area Lizs. We live right outside of a refinery though so I think our stores will be pretty full.”

“Pres Bush released the oil reserves...but after refining, the trucks will have to deliver until the fuel can be rerouted through existing pipelines.....”

“which puts us at what... sometime AFTER the big old holiday weekend, I'm guessing??”

“lizs, go buy some big 5gal jerricans, fill them with gas, and cache them along your return route.”

“LOL! (ummm, what's a jerrican? lol)”

“Well lizs, hope for a good tailwind on the way home--you might be able to coast in!”

“And you can get some jerricans here

But you might also look at your local army/navy surplus store, if you have one.”

“I might be saying, "my Subaru gets 150 miles per jerrycan!" real soon here!”

“Gas jumped $.30/gallon in my town today. Glad I filled up Tues.”

“CNN reported that Chevron is rationing deliveries to its retailers on the East Coast on a temporary basis.

Other than that, no rationing that I know of. Of course, now that it has hit $3.00 a gallon in some spots of East Tennessee, we are doing a pretty damn good job of rationing ourselves.”

“Interestingly they're called Jerricans as they were the designs used by the germans in WW2”

“Nothing quite like high prices to encourage conservation.”

“Oooh, perhaps we should call them Teutonic-American-cans then? lol...”

“bit - not a bad idea, really. Assuming you have the room to carry the full cans on the route out, and the empty ones on the way back. And can find good places to stash your stash that won't get raided.”

“That's what a shovel and a hole is for!”

“A whole new angle to geocaching!! LOL


Don't be surprised to see more of the type thing chili said. I heard of it here, it's just not on the news yet.”

“I’ve never had any problem getting gas.

Getting rid of it surreptitiously... now there’s a problem.

”

“My crockpot pinto beans with salt pork are a great way to produce your own gas at work.

And if you are a misanthropist like myself, they will also give you hours of people-free time.”

“

hee hee...anus....rectum”

“Rectum? Damm near killed 'em!”

“BackSlacker quit reading my mind! lol...”

“LOL...you're welcome backslacker for the slow pitch”

“LOL Thanks ;-)”

“I don't know what's going on but gas just shot up $.50 in a 24hour period here in Northern Michigan. We're staying home this labor day weekend. Literally. We're not even going out to the lake for a cookout. If we can't get there on a bike, we aren't going. scarey”

“lizs a gas can or two might not be a bad idea, driving through South Dakota. You could really have a problem if you pulled into a station up there and they didn't have any to sell. I haven't driven up there much in the past few years but I remember there were stretches on the interstate where you could go fifty miles or more without seeing an exit with a gas station. If there's a run on gas I suppose some places could be left without any.”

“Yeah, good advice Omahiker. See how this all hits your biz over Labor Day.

I have an e-mail out to someone in Edgemont SD to see what she knows of the current situation.”

“The gas has ruined our labor day weekend plans! I'm really bummed out. I don't think it's safe Liz to risk going off to South Dakota. If they run out of gas how are you going to get back? A 5 gallon extra can of gas isn't going to help when you are that far away. Also the places that do have gas are going to skyrocket. I went by a Shell Station and an Exxon today and they were both out of regular. Last night I went to Kroger and another Shell that were out. This doesn't look good.”

“I asked a guy at one of our papers to check with a local gas distributer (has maybe 10 tanks sitting above ground).

Here's what he e-mailed me:

I called the terminal and of course they sent me on to a national spokesman. He stated that due to the unprecedented destruction that occurred in the Gulf and the fact that many of the refineries and
oil drilling platforms have been shut down either due to damage sustained by Katrina or because the ocean-going vessels delivering the crude can't unload due to damage at the loading docks and/or the lack
of electricity to many of these installations, the flow of fuel to most
parts of the country has been disrupted. I asked him if he has heard any reports of fuel shortages in the Midwest and he said no.

Mrs. Opie (seems weird to write that, :-) ), I'm gonna guess that people in the south would get hit first by lack of gas. Probably a lot came right out of New Orleans.

I don't know this, but maybe in the upper midwest our gas comes from another area (we probably get the crude from that Alaska pipeline, perhaps?)Maybe it comes into Great Lakes ports. So **mebbee** we won't get hit as fast or as hard. I just dunno...

I do know all three people going said, "Let's go!" so... I think we're going unless gas dries up immediately.

I'll check the Sioux Falls Argus and the Rapid City Journal, too, to see what they say about supply out there. I could probably get dang close to Mitchell on a full tank. LOL! We may be stuck at that darn Corn Palace!!! LMAO!
last edited: 8/31/05 7:36:28 PM”

“Bush just ordered the EPA to lift all enviromental restrictions on oil production for the next two weeks.”

“That's kinda an indication of how much damage has been done”

“Here's a report from the Heartland, the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, today. And yes, one gas company ran out of gas today (but expecting delivery tomorrow). Casey's, which has stations all across Iowa and now the Midwest.........

JON WALKER
jwalker@argusleader.com

Published: 08/31/05





Gasoline will hit $3 a gallon today or Thursday in South Dakota as the Upper Midwest feels the aftershock of Hurricane Katrina.

Pump prices jumped 20 cents on Tuesday, a day that motorists looked for last-minute bargains and retailers promised more hikes by the end of the week.

"Which arm do you want?" Rebeca Lyle, 40, said as she pumped ethanol blend at $2.799 a gallon into her van at a Sioux Falls station.

"It's absolutely insane," said Matt Burns, 19, a student at Southeast Technical Institute who gets about 45 miles to a gallon on his Kawasaki motorcycle.

The price increase is rippling through South Dakota, where the economy depends on traveling tourists and fuel-guzzling farm machinery and residents think little of driving long distances. Prices have been climbing for weeks, pushed upward by the global demand for oil.

Prices jumped again this week as the hurricane throttled the Gulf states region that cradles the American oil industry.

"Twenty-five percent percent of the U.S. production is gone today because of the hurricane," said Rudy Gerstner, owner of four Gerstner Oil Co. stations in Yankton that sold ethanol blend for $2.799. "The price from wholesale end went up 15 cents yesterday and it looks like at least another 20 cents tomorrow," he said. "We'll probably see some $2.99 gas within this week yet."

It could hit that today and jump over $3 for regular and premium blends. The price hit $2.799 Tuesday at the 15 Get-N-Go stations that Olson Oil Co. runs in Parker, Hartford, Sioux Falls and Tea.

"It could go up another 20 cents tomorrow," owner Todd Olson said. "It's been so volatile, it's hard to guess anymore. I know about a day before you see it on the street."

As many as 25 cars at a time jockeyed for position to get to the pumps at the Hy-Vee grocery store at 26th and Sycamore, where the price stayed at $2.559 on Tuesday. "We came at 4 o'clock, and it's been like this ever since," assistant manager Dave Olson said as he helped a stream of customers.

A half-mile north on Sycamore, Casey's General Store had lines backed up for its bargain fuel at $2.529 - until supplies ran dry and the nozzles were covered at 7:45 p.m. "We're supposed to have a truck deliver more in the morning," said cashier Ashley Stubbe, though she didn't know what today's pump price would be.

Some consumers took the price hike as a fact of life. "It is what it is. People need gas," Matt Woodzinski, 24, a shoe salesman at Younkers, said as he filled up at the Gas Stop at 41st and Western.

Others have far more tied up in the spike. "We're cutting silage now, and it's probably costing us $1,100 to $1,200 a day for fuel," said Dwayne Archer, owner of Archer Farms in Agar. That's almost double the $600 to $700 a day he spent for the same work two years ago. "That adds up in a hurry," he said.

Fuel prices are a gauge of international politics and environmental issues but, at their root, reflect supply and demand. They have lagged behind inflation since the early 1970s, at least in the United States. "I think we have had a bargain," said Benno Wymar, economics professor emeritus at the University of South Dakota.

But now they are soaring at rates that sting consumers who take cheap fuel for granted. A rise from $2.60 a gallon Monday to $2.80 Tuesday and $3 today would be 15 percent in two days - a stunning jump in an economy where overall inflation is 2 percent to 3 percent a year.

"With decreasing supplies and increasing demands, prices can go just one way and that's up," said Wymar, who will moderate a noon-hour forum Sept. 7 in Vermillion titled "When Will We See $6 Gas?"

The first oil shock of 1973-74 came as the United States stood with Israel during the Yom Kippur War against oil-producing Arab states. The second oil shock came in 1979, when the U.S. offered refuge to the exiled shah of Iran, Wymar said.

The world economy now is absorbing an explosion of new industry in China and India. In Europe now, gasoline is selling for $1.40 a liter, or $5.50 a gallon.

The effect spreads almost everywhere. Connie Cheney's bed-and-breakfast business in DeSmet rides the outlook of tourists, many of whom she expects will be taking shorter trips because of gas prices. "We certainly have heard about it from everybody who walked in," said Cheney, owner and manager of The Prairie House Manor.

The increase comes with mixed emotions, however. At the Sioux Falls Hy-Vee, Kristi Roddel, 24, waited 10 minutes for the chance to pump $50 worth into her sport utility vehicle. "It's sad," she said, "because of the hurricane."

Reach reporter Jon Walker at 331-2206 or 800-530-6397”

“Its going up here in Southern California, but not as fast as other areas. It was $2.71 Tuesday morning, $2.77 Tuesday afternoon, then $2.83 this afternoon (Wednesday) while I was driving home.

Glad I only live 2.5 miles from work; I might be riding my bicycle there & back next week if this keeps up.”

“I have no problem with gas right now...damn beans!”

“I never thought I would live somewhere that had gas more expensive than California!”

“My wife said that most of the stations she saw on her way home from work had premium listed at around $3.50/gal.”

“looks like i'll be bike riding 22 miles in to work!”

“I hear you. I have been biking to work pretty regularly for the last several months. 18 miles each way. I enjoy it so much though that the cost savings is on the bottom of the list of why I am doing it.”

“well gas is back to costing more then smokes....”

“Well Tuesday Jeb told Florida to make it a priority to conserve energy as much as possible and that gas rationing/shortages are possible.

Gas is up from about $2.40ish to $2.90ish. The highest I've seen was $3.05 this morning.”

“hey what happened to my trouble getting ass? thread?”

“Lizs, you're a real dip. A knee biter of epic proportions. An Iowan ball of cow dung. A "friend of everyone" sycophant. A slut. An old hag with self esteem problems.

Thank you, have a lousy day.”

“It's amazing to see stats and figures tossed around like salad in articles like this. The lady in the article states 25% of the capacity is gone. According to a well informed friend of mine who is in the oil business it's more likt 13%. 1.8 billions barrles out of 13 billion barrel capacity. He also says they plan on eliminating the different "blends" in the short term to help with the efficiency helping with capacity issues. Scare scare scare... that's the MO of the news outlets.”

“Did you mean to post that response here DH?”