AaronT said:I have roughly 375 miles of gas in the Prius and 100 in the Miata. Maybe more if I soft foot and short shift. My plan is to drive as little as possible until this panic stupidity sorts itself out. I can wfh so it's easy for me to make this work for a few weeks
Not to quibble, but the "panic stupidity" won't go away by itself. The event you are desiring is the full restart of the Colonial Pipeline. If that doesn't happen within days, this could get very ugly.
1988RedT2 said:AaronT said:I have roughly 375 miles of gas in the Prius and 100 in the Miata. Maybe more if I soft foot and short shift. My plan is to drive as little as possible until this panic stupidity sorts itself out. I can wfh so it's easy for me to make this work for a few weeks
Not to quibble, but the "panic stupidity" won't go away by itself. The event you are desiring is the full restart of the Colonial Pipeline. If that doesn't happen within days, this could get very ugly.
Do you have any reason to believe that the pipeline will remain inop for another week?
Flynlow (FS) said:In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :
Can you rent a car that gets better than 13mpg for the week?
Nope. Gotta haul tools, equip, and trailer.
I first heard about this issue Monday morning on the radio news. The report was (not exact words, but pretty close) "Colonial expects to have the pipeline back online quickly, service disruptions will be minimal, and customers should not expect to see any price increases."
And...here we are, Wednesday.
SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:Of course there is a gas shortage. Don't be ridiculous. Just because the cause was panic buying doesn't change the fact that there is a shortage of fuel.
No, there isn't a shortage. There is plenty of fuel supply. It's just currently in the wrong places.
There is a problem and that problem has multiple causes and faults, I agree.
But the problem is made exponentially worse by panic buyers and hoarding. Remember all that "flatten the curve" stuff from last year? Panic buying gasoline right now is the exact opposite of flattening the curve. It's as if everybody started holding love-ins the month after COVID broke out.
Duke said:No, there isn't a shortage. There is plenty of fuel supply. It's just currently in the wrong places.
Isn't that like saying there is no shortage of food in the world despite people starving to death? Its just in the wrong places?
In reply to ProDarwin :
Not quite. The starving people didn't eat a whole month's worth of food when they heard supplies might be low for a while.
AaronT said:1988RedT2 said:AaronT said:I have roughly 375 miles of gas in the Prius and 100 in the Miata. Maybe more if I soft foot and short shift. My plan is to drive as little as possible until this panic stupidity sorts itself out. I can wfh so it's easy for me to make this work for a few weeks
Not to quibble, but the "panic stupidity" won't go away by itself. The event you are desiring is the full restart of the Colonial Pipeline. If that doesn't happen within days, this could get very ugly.
Do you have any reason to believe that the pipeline will remain inop for another week?
Everything I've read seems to indicate a fairly noncommittal "by the weekend" restart. I assume that's if everything goes as planned, so infer what you will.
RevRico said:In reply to ProDarwin :
Not quite. The starving people didn't eat a whole month's worth of food when they heard supplies might be low for a while.
Food shortage is next! Everybody eat!!!!
ProDarwin said:Duke said:No, there isn't a shortage. There is plenty of fuel supply. It's just currently in the wrong places.
Isn't that like saying there is no shortage of food in the world despite people starving to death? Its just in the wrong places?
1) Infrastructure exists to get the gasoline that is already in storage in this country where it needs to be within another week. This is not a chronic issue. Other than this blip the system typically works as needed. Infrastructure does not exist to move enough food for half a continent across an ocean within a week, if at all.
2) To be brutally blunt: there is no profit to be made in feeding starving people who are starving because they have no way to buy food. Feeding the destitute of [insert economically disadvantaged third-world area here] is an act of charity on the part of those areas that do make enough to feed themselves. The East Coast is not an economically disadvantaged third-world area. There is money to be made in moving gasoline from Texas to New York right now, and even more so in moving it from regional storage to retail outlets. Alternative methods of delivery - driven by cashing in on the temporary interruption - are already coming into play.
This problem will already be sorting itself out when the pipeline comes back into service and 'normalcy' resumes. Yes, it's going to suck for a week or two, but it wouldn't have to suck that hard without the panic.
RevRico said:In reply to ProDarwin :
Not quite. The starving people didn't eat a whole month's worth of food when they heard supplies might be low for a while.
This.
But seriously folks. No gas, no diesel, no trucks, no deliveries. Do the math.
1988RedT2 said:But seriously folks. No gas, no diesel, no trucks, no deliveries. Do the math.
I've wondered how much fuel could be saved if the USPS and other delivery places went to every other day deliveries, except for overnight packages. On average, everyone's mail/ packages would be 1/2 a day later, would that really matter to most people?
1988RedT2 said:But seriously folks. No gas, no diesel, no trucks, no deliveries. Do the math.
Okay, let's say you're correct. Literally everything in the southeast goes to zero. What are you doing to prepare for that?
RevRico said:In reply to ProDarwin :
Not quite. The starving people didn't eat a whole month's worth of food when they heard supplies might be low for a while.
The cause of the shortage doesn't matter. Its still a shortage.
"a state or situation in which something needed cannot be obtained in sufficient amounts."
Many people cannot obtain fuel. It is a shortage.
I don't get it. We have all your gas here in Texas and our gas prices just went to $3.00. WTF??
I go through a tank of gas about every 8 weeks. Swmbos does have the ability to work from home. I'm good.
What speed does fuel flow thru the pipes ?
and when it got hacked were they able to still use the fuel in the pipeline and not put anymore in or did everything just stop ? Because this will add time until everything is back to "normal"
Hopefully the other pipeline companies have made back-ups and this does not spread to the Central time zone area or farther west...
AaronT said:1988RedT2 said:But seriously folks. No gas, no diesel, no trucks, no deliveries. Do the math.
Okay, let's say you're correct. Literally everything in the southeast goes to zero. What are you doing to prepare for that?
I'm gonna plant radishes and feed the chickens.
In reply to californiamilleghia :
My understanding is the computers controlling the pipeline weren't affected by the ransomware, it attacked their admin side and the pipeline was idled out of an abundance of caution and to make sure it didn't also get infected. I could be mistaken.
On Sunday, Colonial said that although its four main pipelines remained offline, some smaller lines between terminals and delivery points were now operational.
"Quickly after learning of the attack, Colonial proactively took certain systems offline to contain the threat. These actions temporarily halted all pipeline operations and affected some of our IT systems, which we are actively in the process of restoring," the firm said.
It added it would bring its full system back online "only when we believe it is safe to do so, and in full compliance with the approval of all federal regulations".
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57050690
If you were a proponent, or a seller of EV's, this event would be a pretty good thing...
1988RedT2 said:If you were a proponent, or a seller of EV's, this event would be a pretty good thing...
Until the next infrastructure attack targets the power grid, which is even less robust....
In reply to Flynlow (FS) :
There are no rental cars as they had to sell their fleets last year to stay solvent and now due to the semiconductor shortage, there aren't fleet vehicles available to purchase. Some rental companies have resorted to purchasing vehicles coming off of lease.
Honestly the issue is stations didn't raise their prices to $12 a gallon at the start. Nobody is panic buying at $12 a gallon, I'd they do, well a fool and their money. Frivolous extra trips would also be halted. Those who need to commute would still begrudgingly pay, but there would be supply for them to do so.
High cost removes self entitlement. Show a hospital employee ID and get an $8 a gallon discount until supplies normalize.
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