11:21 AM PDT, September 1, 2005 latimes.com : Business E-mail story   Print   Most E-mailed      Change text size 
Panic Buying Leads to Gas Shortages, Price Hikes
By Jesus Sanchez, Times Staff Writer

U.S. motorists were hit by a new round of gasoline price hikes today, and in a few locations, sporadic shortages and panicked buying in the wake of refinery and pipeline disruptions triggered by Hurricane Katrina.

A combination of motorists topping off their tanks and distribution problems left some gas stations pumps empty in Atlanta, Charlotte and Milwaukee as well as in locations in Arizona and West Virginia, according to the Associated Press.

In California, there were no reports of shortages or supply problems today, said Rob Schlichting, spokesman for the California Energy Commission. The state's refineries were producing more than 1 million gallons of gasoline a day and pipelines and other distribution channels were operating normally, he said.

"We would like to avoid any of that panicked buying we are seeing in the East because there is no need for it," Schlichting said.

In fact, while gasoline prices rose to record levels in California today, other parts of the nation saw much larger increases overnight, according to a daily fuel price survey by the American Automobile Association.

Statewide, the average price of regular unleaded gasoline rose 4 cents a gallon from Wednesday to $2.884 today, according to AAA. Nationwide, the average gas price rose 6.1 cents to $2.680. But prices rose nearly 9 cents a gallon in Georgia, more than 8 cents in North Carolina and nearly 7 cents in Texas.

As prices shot past $3 a gallon at many service stations and several major Gulf Coast refineries remained offline, the Energy Department said it would tap the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help offset lost production in the gulf. The region normally provides more than 25% of the 5.5 million barrels of crude oil that the U.S. produces daily.

The agency plans to lend some of the reserve's oil to refiners that won't have enough petroleum to make gasoline, heating oil and other products. The reserve, which holds 700 million barrels, is in underground salt caverns along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast. The U.S. consumes about 20 million barrels of oil daily.

Also, the Bush administration temporarily waived key air quality fuel standards in hopes of making gas supplies more plentiful.

But analysts agree that the larger problem is the inability of Gulf Coast companies to refine that oil, which has raised fears of gasoline shortages and has driven prices to unprecedented heights.

Nine of the region's large oil refineries, accounting for about 10% of the nation's ability to process crude, remained closed or seriously hobbled.

Analysts have predicted that $3-a-gallon gasoline will be widespread over the Labor Day weekend, but motorists throughout the country were paying $3 or more Wednesday.

Gasoline's previous inflation-adjusted high occurred in March 1981 after the Iranian revolution. The price at the time was $1.417 a gallon. That price would equal $3.05 a gallon today after adjusting for inflation.

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Times staff writer James F. Peltz and Times wire services contributed to this story    

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I was just wondering what gas prices "regular" are going for across the country?

Here in the Midwest Berlin Wisconsin 3.09 a gallon!

If it keeps up we may all have to walk to work and choose between food and gasoline :(((

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Hi all: I have decided to expand my blog!

My main interests are the Green Bay Packers and Politics

ok so time to move

some politics into the blog

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