Gas Line in Naples Florida today #Gasshortage#irma#naples#gasline#hurricamessuck pic.twitter.com/T2iqZu63tN
— Leanne V Netzow (@LeanneVNetzow) September 14, 2017
I filled my tank yesterday not because of the shortages but because I was low. I paid (with store discount) about $2.65 the gallon which has been the average price lately.
And now that panic has set in, I am happy I did not wait longer. You have to wonder how much of the shortage is actually the attack and how much is just panic buys.
So POTUS stops the construction of one pipeline and the hackers sabotage another one just as Summer is about to begin.
You draw your own conclusions.
The date on the twit is September of 2017.
I’ve seen a couple of current images of gas lines in Florida and other southern states.
In the 1970s we had the “gas shortage” when OPEC decreased production by some small amount and people panic purchased.
There is this thing called “surplus storage”. Your gas station has a tank holding 15,000 gals of which they can pump around 14,000 (the bottom is sludge catch and they aren’t suppose to pump it. If they do, they clog their filters).
If a cars average 12gal tanks and you fill when you are at 1/4 of a tank, that means each fill will take 8 gals and each car has a 4 gal “surplus storage” on average.
Taking my small town as an example, we have 3 gas stations with a max capacity of 14000*3= 42,000 gals if all three stations just got a load of fuel.
They normally get refilled at the 1/3 to 1/2. So on average they have 10,000 gals ready to pump.
There are around 4000 cars in my town. That means that just townies have 4000*4 or 16,000 gals of storage surplus, the stations have 30,000 read to pump. All good, sort of.
That is 16,000 gals of gas from the 30,000 ready to pump, or about half the supply ready to pump. And the stations sell around 20,000-25,000 per cycle, that means we are only short by 6,000 to 11,000 gals of gas. And that means that the townies drive 5 miles to the next town and fill there.
It cascades.
It isn’t that there is a shortage of fuel, it is that we suddenly start storing gas in our cars instead of at the gas station.
Reminds me of this little exchange in Sneakers
https://youtu.be/ifJMFqSV7ic?t=150
If you report a bank is financially shaky, people will start pulling their money out, causing the bank to be shaky and fail.
If you report there is about to be a gas shortage, people will unnecessarily fill their vehicles, causing a gas shortage.
I’ve been in Nashville long enough to see three media-induced gas shortages. During the first one, I lived in an apartment and the retired guy below me immediately went to the store and bought three or four 5 gallon gas cans and filled them up along with his suburban. Then every morning he would go to MacDonalds for lunch with his retirement buddies and then sit in line to top off his tank for the 1 gallon he might have used. He was part of the problem and couldn’t see it.
In the last one, I was out of town at the beginning and by the time my flight got back there was no gas for 50 miles outside of town. I had to take a risk and park at a truck stop overnight waiting for the gas truck to get there at 4am just so I had enough gas to get to work for the next week. This was before we were allowed to work from home whenever we wanted to, so it’s different now.
I first heard about it on Saturday night so we filled up Sunday morning and canceled some late-week plans just in case. Both vehicles take 93 and I have a siphon so we can move gas from the 16mgp SUV to the 24mpg sedan if needed.
I made this point after the Nashville Christmas Bombing, but it’s very important to know your local infrastructure failure points.
Always keep your gas tanks at least half full nowadays. Crazy things are going on. You never know when a bunch of BLM activists are going to block the road ahead of you for hours on end.
“Always keep your gas tanks at least half full nowadays”
Yep. I started doing that after the 2004 hurricane trifecta, and these days is still a good practice with all the idjits wanna-be-Che’s blocking the roads anywhere/anytime.
Topped my car’s gas tank at lunch. 🙂
The 2 nearby gas stations were busy (half of it was probably lunch-traffic) but no lines or people filling up 20 gas cannisters… but then I live out on the sticks, so the crazies are probably going ape-feces on the cities’ gas stations. :::shrug:::
ScottTN…details, details.
So what if the line of cars pictured is almost 5 years old? The point is, we need to be really frightened that it might happen again and, most importantly, we need to blame it on the Democrats.
Focus, Scott. Focus.
Gas lines, high inflation and high unemployment. Jimmy Carter must be proud.
Not Carter. He’s too far gone with dementia to know what’s going on these days. The guy you should commend is Barry Soetoro (aka Barack Obama Jr) since he’s the one giving orders to Biden right now.
“Carter Administration 2.0”
https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2021/05/11/carter-administration-2-0-gasshortage-trends-on-twitter-after-ransomware-attack-on-the-colonial-pipeline/
I’m not sure how this is “panic” buying.
It’s not like buying up all the canned goods and batteries in the store when a hurricane is predicted…you should already have a good supply of those on hand, waiting until the disaster is imminent is not the time to prepare for it.
But gas isn’t exactly the same thing. We use it daily, you have to take precautions to make it last long enough to store extra and even then, it doesn’t last forever (despite what you might see on the Walking Dead where they were still syphoning gas out of abandoned cars three or four years after the population was almost wiped out).
When this first happened, we were told that it wouldn’t be an issue as long as they got the pipeline running within a few days. That was, what three days ago now?
And they’re saying they won’t get it back up until Friday.
Maybe.
I don’t think it’s fair to say people filling up their gas tanks before the supply runs out (which they’ve basically told us is inevitable at this point) constitutes panic. Sounds like a reasonable response to me.
The thing that gets me is the number of people who wait until disaster is absolutely imminent before they even think about preparing for it. If you’re buying canned goods, toilet paper and batteries the day before the hurricane hits, you’re doing it wrong.
I filled all my vehicles yesterday. $2.64 a gallon and no lines. Today most of the gas stations are at $2.85 and the cars are two deep per pump at any stations below that.
My guess is they’ll start running out later today or tomorrow (a few already have, but not many yet).
That’s when the panic will set in. If it lasts long enough, you’d better post armed guards on your cars or people will be syphoning gas in the middle of the night.
Given this crowd, I can absolutely believe they will do whatever it takes to raise gas prices and make people’s lives miserable.
They’ve done it before.
Remember back in the olden days when Obama’s Sec of Energy said Gas ought to be expensive like it is in Europe? and low and behold gas prices shot up. Because they wanted it.
Anything that they want they’ll do, even if it’s inaction so prices rise.
Can’t have extra gas for those Neanderthals that bought generators.
Too late, this Neanderthal’s generator already has gas, propane and natural gas ready and waiting.
And now that Obama’s back in control again, guess what?
Well, it helps to think a little different and prepare for this type of thing.
I’ve got one word for you.
Diesel.
During the last weather caused run on gasoline here in Florida, I just skipped the station with the long lines that still had gasoline and went to the one that was empty but still had as much diesel as I could want with no line.
Governor Whitless in Michigan is supposed to shutdown the Enbridge Line 5 petroleum pipeline across the strait between Upper and Lower Michigan on the 13th. It brings Alberta oil to Michigan and then back into Canada. It is too dangerous, even though it has been there 40 years.
That will affect Ontario and Quebec more than Ohio or Indiana.
I wonder if she is smart enough to keep it open? (Joke)
I think it might be entertaining when Wretched Whitler gets to respond to federal litigation ref that pipeline. Will Zhao Bai Den move to maintain federal jurisdiction, or yield to “state’s rights”?
Then, there’s relations with Ontario, an international border neighbor.
And, of course, the gov election in 2022. How about Wretched hand Chief Craig a portfolio of issues to beat her over the head with?
Pass the popcorn!