Twelve days ago, when Ike hit Texas, we got hit with no gas. Not many people can go that long without gas, including us. We thought everything would recover quickly; after all, there was no damage to the drilling rigs or the refineries. But Atlanta, unlike the rest of the country, is still without. A station here or there gets a dribble of gas delivered once in a while, but it's gone in a flash. Costco hasn't had any at all since the day of Ike. When there is gas at a station, it's 75 cents to 95 cents higher per gallon than pre-Ike.I stopped driving altogether for the first week because I didn't want to participate in the immoral price gouging. Instead I walked everywhere. I drive a little now because walking 3.1 miles to the grocery store to buy a weeks' worth of groceries, then lugging it all home, presumably on my back, the same 3.1 miles, is extremely difficult.
I seems that the reason for the shortage is complicated, involving the EPA's air quality standards for Atlanta, the Colonial Pipeline which brings gasoline from the Gulf to Atlanta, greedy customers, and perhaps crooked business practices. They keep telling us that we should be back to normal in two weeks. But it's been almost two weeks, and they still say two weeks.At any rate, we're tired of 1 1/2 hour lines, driving from station to station looking for gas, and high prices. An idea: Could the rest of the country reduce their driving a bit to free up more gas for us? Just a thought.
