Posted on 05/12/2021 7:48:31 AM PDT by blam
Gas stations from Florida to Virginia ran dry, and prices at the pump skyrocketed late Tuesday, as the hack attack on the biggest U.S. fuel pipeline extends into the fifth day.
On Tuesday evening, 17 states and Washington, DC declared emergency declarations to address fuel shortages.
The emergency declaration covers Alabama, Arkansas, D.C., Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
The Biden administration projected that the Colonial Pipeline would restart by the weekend and urged drivers not to panic hoard fuel.
“We are asking people not to hoard,” U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told reporters at the White House. “Things will be back to normal soon.”
Colonial has said progress is being made and expects to restart a large portion of the pipeline later this week into the weekend.
“Markets experiencing supply constraints and/or not serviced by other fuel delivery systems are being prioritized,” Colonial said in a statement.
Colonial Pipeline
A ransomware attack on Colonial last Friday underscores the vulnerability of critical U.S. infrastructure to cyberattacks, which has already resulted in people across the Southeast panic hoarding fuel.
Tracking firm GasBuddy reported widespread shortages of fuel at gas stations across southeastern states. For instance, it said 40% of filling stations across the Atlanta metro area without fuel.
GasBuddy shares fuel shortage data of other metros: ◾71% of stations in metro Charlotte are without gasoline.
◾Over 61% of Wilmington, NC gas stations are without gasoline.
◾72% of gas stations in metro Raleigh are without gasoline.
◾37% of Myrtle Beach gas stations are without gasoline.
◾Nearly 60% of stations in Norfolk are without gasoline.
◾Nearly 60% of gas stations in metro Atlanta are without gasoline, but that number has held steady since 1am or so.
◾Amongst AL, GA, FL, SC, NC, MD and VA, nearly 1,800 stations are currently out of gasoline.
As of midnight, GasBuddy shows the percentage of filling stations in each state without gasoline. ◾GA 15.4%
◾AL 1.8%
◾TN 2.8%
◾SC 13.4%
◾NC 24.8%
◾FL 4.2%
◾VA 15.0%
◾MD 3.5%
To mitigate even more shortages, the Biden administration said Tuesday it has started mulling over the idea of a temporary waiver of the Jones Act, a U.S. shipping law, to offset shortages.
The Environmental Protection Agency also issued an emergency fuel waiver on Tuesday for refiners to reformulate gasoline in the Mid-Atlantic area. The waiver extends through May 18 for fuel sold in Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Pennsylvania.
The attack on Colonial “is potentially the most substantial and damaging attack on U.S. critical infrastructure ever,” Ohio Senator Rob Portman told a Senate hearing on cybersecurity threats on Tuesday.
The FBI accused hack group DarkSide of the ransomware attack. The narrative already being spun is that the group is Russian or Eastern Europe. Besides Colonial, the hackers launched attacks on 24 other companies in various industries.
Colonial Pipeline told federal officials it would have a better idea when it will restart gasoline and diesel flows by late Wednesday. Let’s hope it’s by the end of this week or, at the latest, this weekend – because if shortages continue – people will get angry. Remember what happened when stores ran out of toilet paper during the pandemic?
Thank puppet man for that!
Oh all the lefties are blaming ....check it out.. “Southerners hoarding gas” as THE cause of the shortage. Not two pipelines being shutdown and one hacked. Not that at all.
It’s “Southerners” at fault.
In 2020 Chuck Schumer looked down over his half glasses at us lowly subjects as about a dozen cities had BLM riots, looting and burning, and he incredibly said: “This is Donald Trump’s America.”
This time it really is a fragile energy landscape with no fracking, pipeline construction halted, dependence on foreign oil from adversaries increased and more regulations to help Green New Deal fantasies ruin us.
It’s on you Biden and handlers.
Those are fightin' words, Yankees.
Why hasn’t and why didn’t Biden declare this a Terrorist Attack on the United States? It was, It is and it is affecting Millions of Innocent Citizens.
Why didn’t Biden immediately declare that we are pulling out All the Stops to hunt down these Terrorist and KILL THEM. All Federal Agencies, the CIA, NSA, FBI,... have Orders to SHOOT ON SIGHT those Responsible Terrorist Attack.
WHY NOT??
You hoardin’?
Why is everyone so worried? Our Secretary of the Dept of Energy said it is only a ‘crunch’. (sarc)
They are mulling over whether to have a meeting to discuss setting up a Task Force to evaluate whether FEMA should call an "Emergency."
Oops, sorry, that was for another thread
We topped off both vehicles and two 5 gallon cans. On Monday. We won’t need to compete with anyone for fuel for two weeks.
If you hadn’t prepared ahead of time with proper storage, how does one hoard gasoline?
That was my first thought, too. This should be a full all-hands-on-deck emergency to hunt down and destroy whoever did this. Instead, they are doing NOTHING but "mulling over whether to use the Jones Act." For crying out loud, where is the LEADERSHIP? Where is the action?
You'd almost think that these anti-carbon bastards are enjoying this and supporting it.
Right. . .and it was two weeks to "flatten the curve."
They're to busy enforcing WOKE principles.
It sucks, but I am almost beginning to think, “the worse, the better”. Travis McGee put that quote out there from someone wanting to use it against normal America, Cloward Pivens I think.
But a small part of me thinks that concept works for us now. Biden voters and Green New Dealers need to enjoy no fuel, no heat, and maybe to almost starve. They need to experience some poverty. They will try to blame it on Trump, but people will easily remember the prosperity Trump created, and how it instantly all went to crap the minute Biden came in. They’ll deny it, but then they will see things falling apart globally too. New strife in Ukraine, a resurgent ISIS, war in Israel, the border wide open, permanent lockdowns...
They wanted Biden and democrats, now they need to get them... good and hard.
This is a terrorist act within the Obama regime, no doubt about it. Likely his CIA or FBI.
Yeah, that worked real well a year ago...
Florida doesn’t even get any gas from the pipeline, yet it’s out because idiots hoarding.
I filled up Saturday and haven’t been in the car since Sunday AM. Almost all stations here in SW Va have gas. I guess we aren’t very good at panicking.
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