With some gas stations dry, pipeline works to send more fuel

The average price of a gallon of gas in the state is now at $2.316, more than 20 cents higher than a week ago, according to motorists’ advocacy group AAA.

This recent fluctuation in fuel prices is being attributed to the recent closing of Line One of the Colonial Pipeline, which had sprung a leak earlier this month.

Yasamie August, a spokesperson for Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley’s office, said they do not plan to release a separate order related only to gasoline prices.

“Certainly the tightening of supplies will have an impact on that”. The order prohibits gas stations from artificially hiking prices during the state of emergency.

Average retail gasoline prices in Alabama have risen 7.3 cents per gallon in the past week, averaging $2.01 per gallon Sunday, according to GasBuddy’s daily survey of 3,348 gas outlets in Alabama.

The Colonial Pipeline stretches from Texas to NY. The leak, which occurred outside of Helena in central Alabama and was discovered on September 9, resulted in supply disruptions along the East Coast.

“One truck is 8,000 gallons”, Budhani said.

Officials with Colonial Pipeline have been using an alternate line (normally used to carry jet fuel and diesel) to transport gasoline.

Several miles away in the Birmingham suburb of Pelham, police guarded the entrance to a Colonial Pipeline terminal beside Interstate 65.

“It’s a 36-inch pipeline”. The pipeline was immediately shut down due to ‘integrity issues’.

“It can be done if something can be cobbled together, and that’s in place right now where other alternative pipelines are being used”.

Prices in Kalamazoo and Lansing were up slightly this week increasing.6 cents to $2.18/g and 1 cent to $2.19/g, respectively, according to GasBuddy.com.

Once the state of emergency has been declared, the governor then has to issue a freeze on prices for a service or a product for them to be subject to price control.

The executive order also warned against gasoline price gouging by retailers.

He said “it not indicative of price gouging. I have directed all applicable executive branch agencies to take immediate action to address any verified reports of price gouging of gasoline”, McAuliffe said. So far the N.C. Attorney General’s Office has received over 400 complaints WHEN WILL THINGS SETTLE DOWN?

“I wasn’t terribly anxious because they were saying spotty outages, not pervasive outages”, he said. On Saturday night, it said it was building a bypass line to get fuel flowing again.

“It’s just a temporary situation”, Ingram said this morning. It’s a fix that should be ready by the end of the week, a spokesman for Colonial Pipeline said.

“And they got gas”, said Elaine Steward, who stopped at a North Augusta, SC gas station on the was to Louisiana from Myrtle Beach, SC.

“We get our supplies from Doraville and Athens”.

In response to the shutdown, the governors in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee announced they would lift restrictions on the number of hours that truck drivers delivering fuel can work, in hopes of preventing fuel shortages.

“It’s jumped up a good bit”, he said.