honestly, i smell something fishy. this whole deal just seems too weird. if a pipe didnt work right, it looks to me like it would be easy enough to circumvent with trucks traveling a little farther. too many obvious plain ways to fix it and seemingly none of them done.
its not like that area of the country is like an island. and if the "shortage" was really that bad, why is gas here plentiful and down to nearly less than 3.00 a gallon?
Ok, I've been lurking and trying not to rant but now I have to. I'm North of the Atlanta Metro and yes, this area is basically an island when it comes to gas delivery. We basically get all our gas from the Southern Gulf refineries and pipelines. NC has gas, but SC doesn't; Ky has gas, but Tn doesn't... That is because those are basically the demarc points that have the ability to receive from multiple regional distribution points. Down here, we don't have that option.
I haven't bought gas for over a week now. I'm fortunate that I can work from home. Most people don't have that option though and this area is notorious for long commutes so alot of people really do need to get the gas just to get to work everyday. They're are of course idiots filling 5G cans after they fill their car, but that is a very small minority.
As far as the EPA changes, yes they were made. Because of the air quality in Atlanta and Nashville, the EPA required a cleaner grade here. That grade is refined in smaller quantity than the standard. The ask wasn't to change the refinery lineups, but rather to allow us to utilize the gas mix that exists in larger supply. To give you an idea of the "perfect storm" of supply interuption and government blundering we're in right now... this has been 20x worse than when Katrina hit and actually damaged the infrastructure. Perdue asked today that the Strategic reserve be tapped.
Awww.... the South, it's a great place to live but I don't want to have to drive here.