Opinion Talk

By Aaron

September 30, 2008 12:51 PM | Link to this

Conservation, or rationing can be a good idea, but it’s not a sensible idea at this time. If we are not in a fuel shortage there should be no reason to ration. I travel a lot for work. Many people, such as myself, travel on a daily basis for long distances.

By Logical Dude

September 30, 2008 12:57 PM | Link to this

What can we do to fix the gas shortage??

Well, don’t drive so much.

By David Owens

September 30, 2008 1:26 PM | Link to this

Even/Odd rationing. If the first number on your license tag is even, you gas up on even days. If it’s odd, you gas up on odd days, i.e. if your tag begins with 2,4,6 or 8, you gas up on even numbered days, if it’s 1,3,5,7 or 9 you gas up on odd numbered days. Limit all purchases to ten gallons or less until supplies are back to normal.

By Mike

September 30, 2008 1:58 PM | Link to this

How would delaying my gas purchases improve the supply? If I put 2 gallons in my tank every day for 6 days, or 12 gallons in my tank once every 6th day, I still purchase the same amount of gas in the same number of days - so how has waiting helped?

This so-called “solution” only reduces the number of times I go to the pump, not the number of gallons sold overall.

I know that our public servants want to appear as if they are doing something to fix things, but I’m disappointed (and a little insulted) that Cobb Commissioner Sam Olin and US Senator Johnny Isakson have pitched an odd-even rationing, similar to our drought water restrictions, as a gas-conserving solution. It’s not. People will just buy twice as much gas on the days that they’re allowed to.

The reason water restrictions worked is that people conserved water - we weren’t using twice as much water on the days we could legally use it. Rationing gas makes our shortage look more ominous than it is without actually improving our supply.

The panic-buying has already eased. We don’t need another round of legislative restrictions mucking up the market just as things are starting to improve.

By SUV's suck

September 30, 2008 2:02 PM | Link to this

Buy cars that aren’t gas guzzlers—-duh. A Tahoe guzzles gas at $4806 a year while a Civic driving the same amount of miles costs $1925. Do the math.

By GaLiberal

September 30, 2008 2:06 PM | Link to this

An odd-even rationing system would be hard to enforce given that someone would have to check license plates or other id. The best way to do any rationing would be someone at the pump putting in your alloted 5 or 10 gallons. The problem here is the greedy, self-centered, f*******-you-I-got-mine mentality that permeates metro area drivers. There would not have been a shortage if all these greedy people didn’t run out and fill up every day. The distribution system is set up to bring in gas on a just-in-time basis so when you have thousands of people demanding gas all at once, the system breaks down. Of course, The Laughing Fat Man didn’t want to do anything to address the problem. Greedy, selfish people will do what is best for them; not for the community. So TLFM’s retarded idea the government shouldn’t do anything proves just he is how out-of-touch with reality. But, hey he’s a Rethuglicon so he gets a free pass for screwing over the metro area. I’ll remember in November. Will you?

When you vote Rethuglicon, you vote against your own best interests. And TLFM’s failure to act is living proof.

By J

September 30, 2008 2:20 PM | Link to this

Yeah, Rethuglicons and Democraps both suck. Too bad we can’t vote third party here in GA because those two moronic parties control everything, including who gets on the ballot. Why isn’t Nader on the ballot? Hmmm, because he’d put a stop to the daily screwing over of the average American. We can’t have that now, it would make too much sense!

By Jeff

September 30, 2008 2:27 PM | Link to this

Liberal:

If the EPA had not unconstitutionally mandated that ATL MUST use a special blend of gas, different than that of say Albany, ATL would not be having issues right now.

And which side of the Republicrat party supports MORE unconstitutional EPA regulations?

When you vote Republicrat (Democrat OR Republican), you vote against your own best interest. Bush, Pelosi, and Reid are living proof.

By Atl Native

September 30, 2008 2:30 PM | Link to this

How about remove the gas price caps and allow the stations with gas to sell it for what they need to to keep everyone from lining up. If the stations raised the price to $8/gal then only the people who NEEDED gas would buy. When gas became available again then competition would reduce the prices back to the level they were before the shortage. Simple economics of supply and demand. We are supposed to be in a FREE MARKET economy right? Additionally the higher price of gas would force people to car pool or use the bus this would rapidly help the gas shortage problems in ATL.

By JT

September 30, 2008 2:52 PM | Link to this

One way to immediately reduce consumption by 10-20% would be for people to start driving at or below the speed limit. Driving at 75 mph versus 55 mph is a big waste of gas. Driving less aggressively also will help improve gas mileage. If the police and other public safety personnel would take the lead and drive at or below the limit, it might slow things down and save a decent amount of fuel.

By Libertarian16

September 30, 2008 3:00 PM | Link to this

* Long Term Planning *

Realistically there are no bad ideas to this shortage. We are focusing on the issue at hand when someone should have been planning for the future. If we can’t build more refineries then the slightest hiccup will cripple our infrastructure. If god forbid a terrorist (foreign or domestic) blew up a refinery, then the would successfully cripple any region of our country. Let’s face it, we need gas. We will need gas to fuel trucks to bring food to our stores, to operate machinery that works on our infrastructure and fuel for the cargo ships to bring goods to a country that has no manufacturing base (that’s us for those not in the know).

We are a nation of consumers and we want what we want immediately. We need water reservoirs but we are told it will take 10 years and we all just say forget it. We burn fossil fuels to make energy instead of allowing us to use nuclear to provide us power. We want cheap gas, but won’t let the free market drill in the US. Gas is the least of our worries. The price of oil will continue to grow because we are not allow to use our own resources to become independent of other countries. We cannot refine the oil fast enough to bring the goods and services to our homes. We burn oil to heat our homes in the north and burn natural gas to heat our homes in the south. We consume! If you don’t own the means of production, then you are subject to market fluctuation and outside influences.

One of the major issues we have here is the value of the Dollar. The governments (state and fed) have devalued our money and that is why we are paying so much for basic goods and services. The Federal Reserve (which is a private company) and the Federal government have put too many dollars on the market and now we will have to pick up the tab.

i don’t blame anyone but the people. Companies make money. Governments listen to the few. People are not held responsible for their actions and want the above to pay for it.

By Decatur

September 30, 2008 3:08 PM | Link to this

It serves all the people right who chose to live outside town and drive forever to get to work. I like ATL Native’s idea. I haven’t gotten gas in 2 weeks and still have a 1/4 tank. I’m taking marta to work…

By The Voice of Reason

September 30, 2008 3:08 PM | Link to this

Stop the stampede, plain and simple. Educate the ignorant, there is no gas shortage.

People are behaving like cattle instead of rational human beings. Did you know that if you drive an hour away from downtown Atlanta there are no lines at the pump?

Want to know why? BECAUSE THERE IS NO GAS SHORTAGE.

Gas stations always have a surplus in their tanks. They are running out in metro Atlanta because of panic buying. When the press told the cattle (people) that oil refinery’s and oil rigs in the gulf of Mexico would be temporarily shut down because of Hurricane Katrina, they stampeded the pumps and haven’t stopped since.

Is there a shortage in say, Columbus, Georgia, Savannah, Georgia or Birmingham , Alabama? NO.

It ‘s regionally situated right in and around metro Atlanta due to sheer stupidity. Mayor Franklin needs to impose a moratorium on the amount of gas that can be purchased in an effort to rein in this wild stampede.

And one more thing, Barack Obama isn’t the first black man to run for the Presidency. Alan Keys ran in 1996, 2000 and is running again in 2008.

By Proud Southern Democrat

September 30, 2008 3:08 PM | Link to this

The best way to fight gas shortages is to throw Barack Hussein Obama in prison with Mike Vick.

Birds of a Feather….

By Copyleft

September 30, 2008 3:26 PM | Link to this

Proud Southerner Disorder: Great example of why Obama is our next President… the folks who attack him are simply too deranged for anyone to listen to them.

By numnuts

September 30, 2008 3:30 PM | Link to this

Ummmmm, by producing more of it from different locations? Oh wait…

By David Owens

September 30, 2008 3:35 PM | Link to this

By Mike: “How would delaying my gas purchases improve the supply? If I put 2 gallons in my tank every day for 6 days, or 12 gallons in my tank once every 6th day, I still purchase the same amount of gas in the same number of days - so how has waiting helped?”

It helps by breaking up the pattern of hoarding and panic buying. Reducing by half the number of vehicles which can buy gas on a given day also gives the distributors and retailers time to build up stocks again.

By numnuts

September 30, 2008 4:03 PM | Link to this

What morons have been blocking all attempts at increasing energy production and refinement since the 70’s? And who in their right mind now wants to go back to those glory days.., where gas lines and double digit inflation where the norm??

Who? Yep…, numnuts. No the other one.

By just saying

September 30, 2008 4:16 PM | Link to this

How about allowing only ONE gas can per time at the pump. People showing up with several cans has been one of the problems.

By Paul

September 30, 2008 4:52 PM | Link to this

Dear Atlanta,

STOP trying to insinuate that there is anyone to blame for the gas woes other than the city and state government. Blaming the public for making sure that they are able to get to work and get groceries on a regular basis and should not be topping off is woefully pathetic. While you might want to see the good in people, they will look out for themselves first and who can blame them in this uncertain economy? A few days not being able to make it to work might get you fired?! Yeah, businesses are like that.

Ike formed on Sept 1, hit the Houston and Galveston areas on Sept 13th and dissipated on the 14th. The city and state leaders knew that the refineries were shut down, and how long it would conceivably take for them to be back up and running and finally (today) be operating a full capacity. Why on Earth did it take over a week for them to suspend that EPA additive rule when as soon as the storm track they knew Atlanta and the Southeast would be crippled. They should have had gas trucks on the road as it was hitting the coast.

This is a perfect example of how the Atlanta city government is not qualified to be running a big city. Risk analysis and projection, contingency planning and catastrophe contingencies are MAJOR parts of keeping your city running. Maybe we should send you back to school or get you a “Running a Big City For Dummies” handbook.

Blame…not the public, they are protecting what they are responsible for. The city’s politicians are responsible for their family..the city. They failed us.

By Houckster

October 1, 2008 2:33 PM | Link to this

Our problems stem from two negative conditions: 1) Mr. Perdue didn’t consider the problems posed by Ike to be sufficient cause to implement the emergency fuel conservation system; 2) Refined fuel reserves were already low.

Mr. Perdue must not drive a lot because the functional definition of trouble that’s eluded him is when a person can’t get enough fuel to get to work. He also apparently didn’t realize that our problem is like a person trying to get himself out of quicksand. It’s just a whole lot better to avoid the problem in the first place.

What are the two most important things that we should learn from this debacle? It’s that: 1) There should be education about what people should do when a fuel shortage emergency is likely to occur; and 2) The measures to implement things like odd- even day refueling, maximum and minimum refuel limits etc. have to be available. Police should be empowered to ticket people violating the emergency procedures.

No doubt some will object to some of the things that will be necessary to establish a function emergency system but the state has the responsibility to do the right thing, not just the politically expedient thing.

Mr. Perdue gets a D- for a grade.

By ButtHead

October 1, 2008 3:08 PM | Link to this

CopyLeft, please read this article and see the true Obama, only an idiot would even think he would make a good president, or should I say dictator, that IS his objective.. http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/2178136/subversives-for-obama.thtml

By Copyleft

October 1, 2008 3:40 PM | Link to this

Thanks for the link to another example of the Spectator’s outstanding journalism—speculation, paranoia, and unsourced claims from nameless sources.

That’s what passes for truth among the hysterical right wing… and it’s why they’re losing.

By Ben Robinson

October 1, 2008 3:41 PM | Link to this

This was caused by us…”we the people.” By simply keeping our tanks at 1/4 to 1/2 full, we would instantly have twice as much gas at the pumps. Plus, it would cause gas prices to go down again. Now, how difficult is that. Sometimes “we the people” are driven by fear and selfishness. We don’t want the gov to have so much control, then we do something like this and blame it on the governor. You can’t have it both ways.

By Chaz

October 1, 2008 4:01 PM | Link to this

Use less gas, and wait for the temporary shortage to pass. That’s what I’m doing. Voila.

Overreaction seems to be a lifestyle choice these days.

By Fred

October 1, 2008 4:14 PM | Link to this

Blaming this on city and state governments only goes to prove that you can’t rely on city and state governments to provide you with what you need. They imposed anti-gouging regulations, and just like always, government controls = shortages.

If the government supplied us with toilet paper, we’d be lining up for toilet paper.

By Zeke Spears

October 1, 2008 6:11 PM | Link to this

Doesn’t anybody see the systemic problem here? This will only continue to cause problems if we continue to rely on this way of thinking. How many times are we going to complain about gas prices and now this shortage before we change our ways? There are other options. Options to move forward and not backwards like relying on this dirty, unclean, unhealthy fuel. We should be using this as a time for improvement, not for allowing dirtier fuel to be our backup plan for when we run out of fuel that isn’t that much cleaner.