Bloglanta

“And I dreamed I saw the bummers riding shotgun in the sky, turning into butterflies above our nation.”
-“Woodstock,” Crosby, Stills, and Nash

I have to once again borrow/steal the phrase “fear and loathing” from the late Hunter S. Thompson because it aptly describes the situation in this city, state and country. The oil flow in the two pipelines that feed the eastern United States is severely hampered by the damage to the oil refineries on the Gulf Coast.

On Wednesday, Georgia residents responded in their normal, calm manner to this problem by making a crazed rush to the gas pump to fill up their tanks before all the stations ran out of gas. Stations charged obscene prices, close to six or seven dollars a gallon in some places, in order to capitalize on the long lines.

But by Friday, prices had leveled off to more reasonable figures. While driving to the bank from my Little Five Points apartment, I passed four gas stations along North Avenue and Ponce de Leon Avenue. Two of those listed unleaded gas at $3.19 per gallon and two listed it at $3.29 per gallon. This is the first time in all my life living in Georgia that I remember gas ever being over three dollars per gallon.

Also on Friday, the Bush administration ordered 30 million barrels of oil to be released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the International Energy Agency will introduce 60 million barrels of gas and petroleum to the market, according to a story on CNN.com. This announcement, along with power returning to several refineries in the Gulf allowing oil production to return at a slow rate, has driven the price for a barrel of crude oil below 70 dollars (67 dollars as of 4:00 p.m. EDT). A colleague on this blog already reported that Gov. Perdue has suspended gas tax collections through the end of September with the hope of driving gas prices down 15 to 20 cents.

The Bush administration and state governments in the Southeast are doing everything they can think of to keep gas prices at a reasonable rate. Gov. Perdue warned Georgians not to engage in panic buying right now because it will only make the situation worse. When I passed those four gas stations today, it was unclear if they were short on or out of gas. There were hardly any cars if any at those stations, which made it more difficult to assess the situation. With tankers having trouble making deliveries because of the hurricane damage to Gulf Coast refineries, it is inevitable that stations are going to run out of gas. People hoarding gas will expedite the problem.

Gas prices will remain extremely high for the next 90 days or so, taking us to the end of the year. But we have gone past the point of no return. I predict the government will eventually have to ration gas similar to the 1970s. Long lines at gas stations will become a common occurrence. High gas prices will become a part of life.

It is all part of a series of bummers and the fear and loathing that has occurred in 2005 all over the world. But even I will not be as happy to see this year come to an end as the residents of the Gulf Coast. Worrying about gas in Atlanta pales in comparison to fighting for survival in New Orleans.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 2nd, 2005 at 5:19 pm and is filed under Looking Toward the Future. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.