We had a pipeling break in Alabama and now everyone in Atlanta is in full bore panic. Gas stations have no gas and where there is gas, there are gas lines. Prices have gone up. Amazing. There is no shortage of gas. What we have here is the bread and milk syndrome. Here in Atlanta all we have to hear is that there is a snow storm on the horizon and all of a sudden there is no bread or milk in the stores because all of the chicken littles have to run out and stock up just in case the snow storm is a blizzard. Panic ensues.
This is what is currently going on here in Atlanta. We have a two week supply of gas in the tank farm. Unfortunately, when the news of the pipeline break broke people immediately ran out and filled up all of their cars. They filled up their boats. They filled up spare gas cans. As a result, they manufactured a shortage. Had no one told them about the pipeline break everything would have been OK.
This just shows how irrational humans are.
Colonial, the owner of the pipeline, has just completed a bypass around the break and gas will start flowing tomorrow. It’s nice being retired and rational. I didn’t rush out to fill up my cars. By the time I gas up, there will be no lines and the price will have dropped back to normal.
When the prices drop expect complaints of “price gouging”, from the chicken littles.
There has already been some real price gouging. There always is.
I wouldn’t call it irrational.
People have come to expect massive incompetence. Imagine if the EPA had decided to throw its weight around and screw everything up. No gas for months.
At one TN I24 exit, prices jumped from 1.89 to 2.29 at 3 stations, another one went to 1.99. The lines were at the 2.29 pumps — go figure. Guess they had to squeeze in that last 0.0186 gallon to get to the store for more bread.
I remember in 1977 the gas shortage caused ling lines, paid Waiters, and the creation of my favorite national department, The Department of Energy, created to wean US off of foreign oil….Billions of our dollars wasted and now we are the last major country that is only using a small amount of nuclear power. 20% of the potable water currently used on this continent is used in coal burning power plants…a nuclear power plant produces a wheelbarrow of nuclear waste per year. Even Bill Gates was in a short movie about the nuclear waste disposal plant (Solar powered nuclear detoxification) we should build in the western desert that would be similar to one in a movie,” Sahara”, 2005 by Clive Cussler.
Another thing to blame Jane Fonda for. Remember the China Syndrome?
I lived in the South Bay area of Los Angeles during both of the
“Gas shortages” decades ago. Surrounded by major and independent
refineries, I noted that every tank farm I drove past was full to the
brim! (There are ways to know at a glance by looking at the tanks)
The first crisis was engineered by OPEC in 1973, By then, the cost
to suck the product out of the ground due to EPA regulations were
so high, they had to stop domestic drilling and were forced to buy on
the spot market at wildly inflated values. As always, if you get hit with
a hefty price hike on any commodity, you will sell less of it, so they ended
up with more product than they could sell at the inflated prices.
I did not blame the oil companies for immediately raising the price
of their product because they might have to pay EVEN more at market
prices to replace the product they sold. The second crisis came at the
end of the Carter administration. Same results!
By the time Reagan was elected, the crisis was over but by deregulating
the oil companies, there was an almost immediate 50 percent drop
in fuel prices! The Trumpster is going to use the Bully Pulpit in ways
Reagan never even imagined! If he does even half of what he is
promising, there will be very few publicly traded commodities that
will not drop drastically in price.
It is going to be fun to watch, but I have no idea how to solve the issue
idiots on a panic buying spree!
Leonard…Bravo….well written.
I lived in Long Beach, Ca. at the ocean and could see many, many oil “islands” off of the coast that never stopped working.
The refineries along the Harbor Freeway (110) in San Pedro and Wilmington never stopped working.
It was said in many local papers back in the late 80’/early 90’s, that there was enough oil under the local area to supply
So Cal for several hundred years.
Justifies my theory: 85% of Americans are ignorant emotionally driven assholes.
Another 14% are morons, and the remainder come here daily to bask in the wisdom and humor exhibited by Denny, Ron and Claudia.