man, u hit it on the head. the government is trying to please the american people, but the problem is that the american people are so stupid, that they are not willing to refuse to pay for something because its too expensive. so the government is having to intervene, further stupidifying the average american. now i understand that people have to drive to work and school, but if you dont drive anywhere else, then you are cutting down on the gas you use. and if you refuse to do this, then dont complain about the price of gas.

sorry for the rant, and none of this was directed at anyone who posted here. you are complaining about the supply of gas.

and im in the same boat. i live in kennesaw, where its not possible to walk anywhere, and i have to drive a good ways to get to school, the store, etc. but i think that the gas prices/supply would be in better shape if the government were to stay out of the free market. anyways, rant over.

 

Bought gas here in South Texas. McAllen to be exact. The price was 3.35, and no lines! Sounds like you State Guberment is giving yall the business from the rear. I grin, but I feel for ya living in a State with goofy blends.

 

The Govner' LOL has been saying for the past three days that we have 5 more days and the supply will be back to normal and be sure to let us know who is gauging at the pump, so we can go after them. OK, I just had to go buy gas for my Excursion (a third car that is not driven that much) because I have volunteered to drive six students to a lunch tomorrow and the Excusion was at less than a quarter tank. I found some gas a little closer at the QT on 92 near 575. Wait was about 10 minutes. They told me that had about 30 minutes of supply left and if I needed gas that I might need to drive up to sixes (luckily another attendant called me over to a pump that was about to free up). They had 5 or 6 employees directing cars which was nice and their were cops standing outside the door drinking their coffee. I was talking to one of them and he said they are a high volume store and received three shipments today. I am not seeing this "shortage" being resolved for a while as only the high volume stores are receiving shipments. Gas was only 3.85 for regular. GA use to have the cheapest gas in the SE until the low sulfur blend was mandated two years ago. (but that is another story)... Oh, so I have a 44 gallon tank, I purchased 13 gallons (just enough to be sure we make it through tomorrow). So the last person in line at the station needs to say thanks. The Dodge truck in front of me let his fill up and auto cut off (at only 9 gallons)... hmmm...

Happy gas hunting, I should not need any until the middle of next week.

 

Low sulfur fuel?!?!? WTF? Georgia=California? That is so F'ed, I cannot believe what I am hearing. I sense a State that needs to oust some Libs...

 

whats special about georgia's blend

 

its not all of georgia's fuel, just metro atlanta. my understanding is(and correct me if im wrong) that the federal gov't mandated that all large cities are required to run a low emissions blend. but the governor also requires this special blend in the city(not really sure, but i know it envolves both the state and federal gov't). now the fed gov't has suspended the special blend. but we're still waiting on the governor to suspend it. so its only in the city that we have this special blend. of course, metro atlanta huge.

if someone who knows more about this could do a better job of explaining it...

 

Hi sharpshooter:

I think you are close enough. Last I looked, there were either 13 or 17, depending on your source, boutique blends for various cities/metro areas around the country.

I can't find a link but I believe I read some years ago that Atlanta was put in that category due not to climatic or geographic reasons (ringed by mountains, subject to offshore breezes etc.) but by the sheer volume of traffic in the metro area and the extremely congested nature of our traffic.
Atlanta has usually been #1 in subjects relating to congestion, accidents, drive time etc. for several years now.

I am not sure whether the decision comes from the Federal level or the State level to mandate a specific low emissions fuel nor do I know how the specific "blend" is arrived at. I do know that all of the 13 or 17 boutique blends are different which is a bit baffling to me.

For what it is worth, I have read in the past 2-3 years that many scientists that deal with this issue are questioning the value of these special blends because the advances in Engine Management Systems developed in the last 5 years or so mean that almost any vehicle is burning whatever fuel you put in the tank at optimum emission levels.

Here in the Atlanta metroplex, I believe 4 counties surrounding the City fall into the zone that requires that special "Summer Blend" fuel. That means about 3 million people.

I live on the Powder Springs/Kennesaw line and drive about 9 miles to my HobbyTown USA shop and the situation this AM was 3 stations out of gas, 1 with gas and a line maybe an 1/8 mile long out into the street. I got home a half an hour ago and all 4 stations were out again but during the day, customers told me that all 4 had gas at one time or another.

Up until today, one could drive 15 -20 miles out in the "country" and find plentiful supplies of gas at about $1.00 less per gallon than in the affected area. We are paying between $4.20 and $ 4.80 for regular unleaded when we can find it in the "Summer Gas" area.

My customers were telling me today that apparently this information finally got through to the "Townies" and now stations within a 30 mle radius of Atlanta Metro are running out of gas as well.

My personal thanks to Gov. Sonny Perdue for his stellar handling of this crisis and I hope we never have a hurricane, earthquake of wave or tornados here in Ga. because if we do we are dead meat.

Bill

 

I was shocked to see that the "special blend" counties number 49 for metro Atlanta. Oh, I am still waiting for the right 5th day to come. (This is the second 5th day).. I just don't think it will get here for a month. One national news station was reporting that some of the refineries were STILL SHUT DOWN.

 

We came back from detroit yesterday and found gas at $.367 whilst its $3.88 where we are!!! It really sucks!

 

Man that is really cheap! Which station is that, may be worth me driving the 7 hours to fill up!

 

Update:

Instead of getting better, it seems to be getting worse. I still have 100 miles left on my 2 week old tank, Pat has 90 some miles and we have been SUPER PATRIOTS and have not topped off our tanks since this thing started.

However, I have to do some legit business stuff this coming week so I drove around this morning about 15 miles, 3/4 of a gallon, and found not one bloody station that had gas at any price. Maybe 15 stations in all, majors and independents.

I am buds with the owner of the small independent where I buy gas and he informed me on the QT that he was supposed to get a load at midnight but was not selling until he opened in the morning. He opens at 5 AM.

Guess where I will be at 5 AM tomorrow morning.

This sucks majorly, Chapter 2.

Bill