Gas shortages: get ready for more

[sce56]

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/26/news/economy/gasshortage_okeefe.fortune/index.htm



The long lines and closed pumps seen across the South this week are a warning: inventories are way too low.
By Brian O'Keefe, senior editor
Last Updated: September 27, 2008: 10:05 AM ET

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- While Congress and Bush administration officials have been working to complete a bailout plan and stem the financial contagion on Wall Street, a different kind of economic crisis emerged across the South this week: A severe, hurricane-related gasoline shortage has curtailed trucking from Atlanta to Asheville, N.C., and created a wave of panic buying among motorists.The return of gas lines has largely flown under the radar of politicians who are usually keenly attuned, because their constituents are, to what's going on at the pump. But more of the Capitol gang should be paying attention to this.That's because nationwide our gasoline inventory is shockingly low. Liquidity must be restored soon to this market, or we could be facing a crippling run on the gasoline bank. And if you think Americans are outraged about Wall Street, wait until their Main Street grocery store doesn't get the bread and milk delivery for a week or two.
Back to the '70s

The scenes over the past several days in places like Nashville, Tenn., Anniston, Ala., and western North Carolina looked like file footage from 1979 - with bags over empty gas pumps and quarter-mile long lines of cars waiting to fill up at stations that hadn't run out. AAA reported that drivers were so desperate that they were following tankers to gas stations to ensure a fill-up.In Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue got a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency to temporarily allow stations to sell high-sulfur gasoline. (Correction: An earlier version of this story said Louisiana received the waiver and incorrectly named Perdue as that state's governor.) In Alabama, Gov. Bob Riley ordered a state of emergency to prevent price gouging by station owners that do have gas.
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That's why he worries about a top-up catastrophe that could cripple the trucking industry and disrupt food deliveries.As he told me the other day: "If we end up having gasoline shortages, the odds are about 90% that Americans will do what we always do: We'll top up our tanks. And in topping up our tanks, within three or four days we'll drain the pool dry and then within seven days we'll run out of food."That sounds awfully dire. And it probably won't happen. But, then again, a couple of months ago hardly anybody would have predicted that AIG would collapse, Congress would be mulling a Wall Street bailout, and '70s-era gas lines would be back

[tama]

1. My prediction

This is a very gentle and mild warning of what is to come. Americans will not take this warning seriously.

Prove me wrong.

[Dr.Phool]

2. I talked to an attorney at the dog park this morning.

He spends about every other month at his office in Atlanta, then returns to the Tampa area. I've known him for about 2 years.

I asked him about stories I've been seeing about shortages in the Atlanta area. He said shortage is an understatement. Atlanta is out of gas. Even Fed-Ex's reserves are about gone.