The Colonial Pipeline, an infrastructure that transports about 45% of all fuels consumed on the East Coast, was shut down for six days after a ransomware attack and some gas stations are still struggling with fuel shortages, including ones in Washington, DC, and parts of the Southeast. While workers state that the process of restarting the pipeline’s operations has begun, it might take them several days to stabilize the supply chain. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that the pipeline restart should mean that “things are normal by the weekend,” but clearly stations are struggling with the supply.
According to GasBuddy, an app that tracks fuel demand and its prices, 58% of North Carolina stations have run out of gas and 48% of South Carolina stations run empty. Biden’s America includes rising tax rates, weak border security, racist ideologies being forced into schools, and $6.99 per gallon gas rates. But hey, no mean tweets right?
GasBuddy updated its platform on gas outages in the nation’s capital to report that the majority of the District’s gas stations were still out of gas. Sunday night, about 88% of DC’s gas stations were out of gas, with only a little over 100 publicly available gas stations throughout the city. They reported that only one out of every 10 gas stations in Washington D.C still had gas.
Washington Top News Reporter Neal Augenstein said he came across a lone Marathon gas station near Howard University but doesn’t understand why D.C seems to be having a harder time getting gas delivered. “Obviously it’s on the way, but if you’re on empty and in the District this morning, you may have a hard time finding gas,” he states.
Augenstein later reports that delivery trucks have been making their rounds with gasoline supply, including the Marathon station at Rhode Island and NJ NW.
GasBuddy also reports 26% of Maryland gas stations out of fuel and 31% of Virginia’s gas pumps running dry. Virginia’s pump prices rose by 18 cents per gallon over the last week, with one station charging $6.99 per gallon.
Experts have cautioned drivers against “panic buying” out of fear that supplies will decrease further, leading consumers to pay higher prices. Gov. Ralph Northam called a state of emergency in Virginia as a measure designed to combat price gouging and encourage Virginians to report them.
Head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, Patrick DeHann, said that by Memorial Day there won’t be such an issue with filling up your tank but said that people will likely see the gas outage numbers peak over the next few days. This has been a major issue and has caused concern that there will be major travel issues ahead of the holiday weekend.
New reports also suggest that New Mexico may be the next to experience a gas shortage, but AAA Texas/New Mexico community relations spokesperson Daniel Armbruster said that “conservation” is always key. “Combine errands, use your more fuel-efficient vehicle (if you have one), and remove unnecessary and bulky items from your car. AAA advises filling up when you have a quarter of a tank of fuel remaining,” he said.
While there are still concerns about continued panic buying, skyrocketing fuel costs, and cyber hackers, what’s even worse is President Biden’s response to the crisis. Biden said that the FBI does not believe the Russian government is involved, but that investigators believe the hackers are based in Russia. He also declined to comment on the allegations that Colonial paid millions of dollars in ransom to the cybercriminal group DarkSide.
Sen. Lindsey Graham called Biden’s response “weak” during an interview with Fox News host Jeanine Pirro. He said Biden should’ve responded more aggressively to Russia and worked to update the U.S laws about cyber-terrorism.
“The one thing we haven’t seen from Joe Biden is a deterrent approach. Is anybody in Russia afraid of hitting us again? The idea of graduating people to go into cybersecurity is not what I was looking for. I was looking for putting the Kremlin on notice,” Graham said.
Between his response to the crisis and the instability of his policies, the nation has $7 gas prices and future cyberattacks under the Biden Administration. And he doesn’t even want to seek an investigation into Russia.
