Harvey Damage Shuts Main Fuel Line From Texas to New York
Source: NBC News
Aug 31 2017, 12:57 am ET
Harvey Damage Shuts Main Fuel Line From Texas to New York
by Alex Johnson
The main pipeline carrying fuel from Texas to the East Coast is temporarily shutting down because of refinery outages related to Hurricane Harvey, the company that runs the pipeline said Wednesday night, dealing a potentially major blow to the already storm-ravaged U.S. fuel system. Colonial Pipeline Co., the biggest fuel transporter in the United States, said in a brief statement that "storm-related refinery shut-downs and the impact to Colonial's facilities" west of Lake Charles, Louisiana, had led it to close its line carrying diesel and jet fuel late Wednesday. It said it would close its line carrying gasoline on Thursday.
The Colonial Pipeline originates in Texas and travels through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The pipeline transports more than 3 million barrels of diesel, gasoline and jet fuel each day from Houston to New York Harbor, making it the main provider for major cities like New York, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
The news immediately sent U.S. gasoline prices to a two-year high, Reuters reported Wednesday night. Imports can't make up for this," it quoted an East Coast market analyst as saying. "This is going to be the worst thing the U.S. has seen in decades from an energy standpoint."
Even before the announcement, Harvey — which was downgraded to a tropical depression Wednesday as it moved farther inland — had already shut down the nation's largest refinery operations, halting about 20 percent of the country's daily supply of fuel. Half of the 26 refineries that connect to Colonial's system are located between Houston and Lake Charles, the company said. Colonial gave no timetable for bringing the critical conduits back online.
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Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/hurricane-harvey/harvey-damage-shuts-main-fuel-line-texas-new-york-n797656
If your car is low on fuel, get it filled now.
= new reply since forum marked as read
This doesn't surprise me in the least. Not at a time when they are all out to get more pipelines built. This will be cited over and over again as a reason they need more pipelines.
Thanks for taking the time to explain and share your knowledge.
At one time, we had the largest refinery infrastructure on the east coast (and it greeted people who flew in here and traveled to downtown 
)
But much of that has been shut down or converted.
Thing is, it will depend on what these other refineries are configured to process in terms of crude - sweet vs sour vs the muckety muck stuff. One of the newest owners here (PES, which took over the Sun refinery) is doing shale oil -
http://northamericanshalemagazine.com/articles/374/philadelphia-refiners-bakken-rail-project-saves-company
I remember as a kid in the '60s & '70s and how whenever we went down to South Philly on the expressway right past the refineries, we ALWAYS had to close the car windows until we were past them. 
