Gas shortage draining local pumps
BY BYRON HENSLEY NEWS@TSINEWS.COM TSI News Editor and Staff Reports

Coffee County residents have been jamming lines at local gas station as Coffee County and much of Tennessee suffers through a gas shortages caused when Gulf Coast refineries were hit earlier this month by hurricanes Ike and Gustav. Local gas station attendants say shipments of fuel should by in Sunday or the first of next week. Only 60 percent of refineries affected by the storms are back online. TSI PHOTO / WES CARTER

The gas shortage which has been a pain for motorists in Nashville for a couple of weeks, forcing stations to put bags over their pump handles, has hit Coffee County.

For the first time since this shortage began, Manchester's Kangaroo station near the Interstate 24 Exit 114 is out of gas. Fuel would have been going for $3.77 a gallon Friday night, if there was any fuel to sell.

"This is the first time we've run out completely," Kangaroo cashier Cody McFarland said. Gas is on the way, but it's a question of when.

"It could be here tonight, it could be here tomorrow, it could be here Sunday," he said.

Down the street, the Marathon station had gas, and has not been out of it during the shortage. Store clerk Rhonda Smith said she didn't know why her station had been spared the plastic bag treatment, but hopes it stays that way.

"I don't like to have to walk too much," she said. Smith speculated that perhaps her supplier was not having trouble getting fuel, but she said she doesn't know why some stations have run empty while others haven't.

She's even more confused about why the price at the pump, $3.78, is so high, when crude oil has been relatively cheap in recent weeks.

"If the barrel price is so low, why is it so high for consumers?" she said.

Long lines at gas pumps in Nashville began a couple of weeks ago, after Hurricane Ike forced the closing of several refineries which supply the pipelines through which Middle Tennessee gets its most of its gas.

The situation became so hairy for Nashville motorists that last Friday, Gov. Phil Bredesen issued a statement on learning that "The pipelines that provide gasoline to Nashville are now running at full capacity and should continue at those levels into next week.

"That's good news and should help begin to ease some of the frustrations caused by this service disruption. Still, for the next few days we will continue to see supply shortages, so I encourage motorists to conserve gas as much as possible." Shortages were also attributed in part to motorists engaging in panic buying which depleted pumps.

Sunday, AAA predicted that gas prices in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee Gasoline prices in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee would decrease this week, and that thinly stretched gas supplies in some areas should improve.

AAA noted that the previous week's report from the U.S. Department of Energy indicated that gasoline inventories dropped about 3.31 million barrels as a result of refinery shut-downs, (resulting in the loss of about 20% of the refining capacity in the U.S. due to Ike, and that supplies were the lowest since November, 1967.

"We are still seeing some gasoline outages in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, particularly in Nashville and Tallahassee, but the situation in those cities is improving with more deliveries taking place," said AAA Auto Club South spokesman Randy Bly.

"Refineries along the Texas and West Louisiana Gulf Coast which had been closed are gradually coming back on-line as power is restored in those areas," he said. "The gasoline supply situation is improving but it's like trying to turn a huge ship…it just takes time,"