I am sitting here in a suburb of Atlanta, GA, and I just about cannot buy gasoline at any price.

Yesterday, three of the five local stations where I would normally buy gas are out of gas. The stations that do have gas have lines, ugly lines.

I fully understand the problems with pipelines and refineries after the two recent hurricanes, but if you read the attached article, most of our problem here stems from Atllanta and the immediate surrounding area having to use their own unique boutique blend of fuel which is in short supply.

As I understand from this article and what I see on the TV news and local radio, there are if not plentiful at least adequate supplies of non blended fuel available throughout the state and surrounding areas. But....it cannot be sent here because of the local EPA regulations.

It seems to me that if the Secretary of the Treasury can cobble up a Bill or whatever to pump $700 billion into Wall St. over the weekend, our Governor could make a simple phone call and have the GA EPA or whatever it is called
waive the blended fuel requirement for a week or two until the pipelines get filled.

You see on the TV, cars out of gas in line, out of gas on the Interstates, out of gas on the way to get gas etc. etc. This majorly sucks.

End of rant.

Bill
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayof...ef=mpstoryview

 

Your title says it all. I fear it will get worse before it gets better. - Og

 

its absolutely ridiculous up here, bill- (alpharetta/johns creek/suwanee/duluth) the QT's will have gas for about 35 mins at a time, twice a day - the shell across the street has had fuel this entire time, but they are charging 4.15 for it--still. when QT had it last night it was running at 3.97 they keep telling us to fill up as we normally do- when they return the price to at or below national average, i'll return to my normal fill ups- until then, quarter tanks at a time. this is b.s. I drove around for 35 mins yesterday trying to find a station with gas- (other than the shell at 4.15) finally found a texaco @ 4.09...

 

I drove through Va. a couple weeks ago and Gas was 3.30. Sounds like I need to get a gas truck and fill up in VA, roll on down to GA, and start selling gas for 4.00 a gallon.
I remember when I lived in Florida, the long gas lines right before a hurricane. 1 hour just to top off, just craziness. Not to mention the grocery stores and there bottled water sales.
It was always funny to see someone go through their first hurricane readiness.

 

For this mess we can thank the EPA and their regulations based on early 1970's tech. The special blend fuels were designed for cars running carbs and points.

 

You guys that drive around looking for cheaper gas...you do realize your wasting more gas/time/money doing that then just filling up? For instance, if you buy 20 gallons at 4.15, thats $83. Filling up at 4.10 for 20 gallons is $82. ONE FREAKING DOLLAR!!! Get over it and pay the higher prices. Its just not worth it trying so hard to find it cheaper.

 

When supplies are that tight, and you have an opportunity to fill up at almost any price, you should. Do you know how much money you waste sitting in line and then only putting in 1/4 tank? $4.15 is not *THAT* bad these days - but if you had to pay over 5 bucks then I'd rethink things.

 

Bill, I thought that Bush had directed the EPA to relax the blending regulations temporarily until the supply situation was back to normal - to allow gas from other areas to take up the slack. It's been done before.

 

bush may have done so at a federal level, but there is a Georgia branch (Georgia Environmental Protection Division) which must issue it's own waiver to take us back to regular gas as opposed to summer-blend... Gov. Perdue has made the request.

I don't have as much an issue, im making 31 mpg on that 5 gallons... if I was in my truck, that quarter tank is only going to last me a day or so-

alot of the issue is that they are only providing gas at "strategic" locations- there are at least 6 QT gas stations within 5 miles of my house, but none of them have gas- the one station that does have gas is over by the interstate- 12 miles away --a 'strategic' location to get more money... you've driven 12 miles to find one station with gas- you've passed 6 stations that are shut down and you get there to see a line 45 minutes long to fill up and they're selling at 4.15- 4.29 for 87 oct. its painful- especially when you know your local stations are selling it at 3.94- 3.97 (albeit sporadically)

also- forgot to mention that a majority of the stations are rationing- they have so little gas, they are limiting your purchase to $20 per customer...

 

Reminds me of the winter of 1973/74. Going price for gas then was around 40 cents a gallon. We had a local station that would fill you up - at 50 cents a gallon - *IF* you bought a car wash. No car wash, no gas. That would be illegal today.

 

I worked as a VP for a group of oil and gas companies that owned 3 refineries back then. When I saw the shanangens that went on and what was done to make excessive profits, I had to get out. Went to work for some doctors. Out of the pan into the fire!

 

Jim, your post just absolutely made my day and I thank you for it.

Not to start yet another flaming war, but Pat and I had three children between 1962 and 1967. I was going to College and working three different jobs, none of which offered health insurance.

As best as I can recall, I was making about $2.00 an hour, $320 a month or about $4,000 a year. In today's dollars, about $40K a year.

Without having to borrow money, I was able to pay the primary care doctor, the hospital fees for delivery and post delivery care (3-5 days in the hospital in those days) and the post natal checkups etc. etc. all out of my regular income.

Can you imagine someone making $40K today being able to do that??

Back to my original topic, I have been working in my basement all day today trying to sort out the stuff that Pat and I have collected in 48 years of marital bliss plus the stuff I inherited from my Dad, a 24' U Haul full of stuff and the stuff Pat inherited from her parents, another 24 footer.

I had the radio on to one of the local Pop Music Stations and it was an absolute riot. The station asked listeners to phone or email in information on what stations in the Atlanta area had gas, where they were and what the price was. Also, to name the stations that had no gas.

It is still going on, but there is almost no music being played, it is just a rat race according to what I am hearing. Like Lemmings rushing to drown themselves in the sea just because somebody started to jump.

To finish my rant for today, the sales in my HobbyTown USA franchise store have been down 25% for the last two weeks and according to my take and the impressions of my employees in talking to the customers that do make it in, the major issue seems to be that it is a reach for one of my customers to come to a discretionary income location when they need gas to buy groceries, take the kids to school, get to work etc. etc.

At this point, I am not a happy camper. Between Pat, my sister in law and myself, we have three vehicles, all have at least half a tank purchased two weeks ago (we don't drive a lot) and none of us are about to go out and top off just in case. Wish about a quarter of a million other Atlanta residents would do the same.

Bill

 

Yeah I was sitting in Qt's line last night for about a good 20 minutes. Crazy lines. The shell out next to the high school got gas yesterday and ran out this morning also, its crazy to see so many stations without gas and those that do have you have to wait for. I hope we get some gas back in our area soon.

 

fwiw... qt @ mcginnis & pib just got a tanker @ 3.94 hahaha

 

It is crazy ... do you know why it is taking so long to restore supplies? THE GAS STATIONS ARE SCARED TO RAISE PRICES!!! OUR OVER PROTECTIVE GOVERNMENT JUST DOES NOT GET HOW FREE ENTERPRISE CAN WORK EFFICIENTLY. In time of short supply that has occurred periodically the past three years because of these storms, gas stations raised prices by about 75 cents a gal. People who needed gas, purchased some to make it to where they need to go. The smart ones did not fill up their tanks. The others stayed away and the supply at the gas pump were QUICKLY restored. This time they are not raising prices and guess what is happening... Seriously I drive by about 15 gas stations a day and to see maybe one or two (with only one grade of gas and cars backed up in the road waiting) is very concerning.

Let the free market work so the supplies can be restored and then the prices will be reduced and the panic is OVER... Worked in the past and would work NOW.... Right now I do not see a short term solution to supplies without allowing "price gauging". The two stations a mile from my house have not had gas for six of the past seven days. I had to drive 12 miles to purchase gas yesterday.