Many service vehicles aren't yet affected by the gasoline crisis in Georgia, partly because many of them use diesel fuel, which remains plentiful.
“Our buses run on CNG (compressed natural gas) and diesel,” said MARTA spokeswoman Alisa Jackson.
Jackson was expecting a rise in MARTA ridership by customers striving to conserve what little they have left in their gas tanks, but the numbers didn’t move much she said.
Ridership in the 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. time slot on Monday was only about 1,500 more than it was last week, she said. MARTA usually registers about 400,000 rides each day.
A driver for the lawn service company Weed Pro, navigating through a Decatur neighborhood Monday, said their trucks also use diesel fuel and so aren’t affected by the pipeline break.
But there may be a slight slow-down in the supply of diesel as well, said Garrett Townsend, director of public affairs for the American Automobile Association/Georgia. Some pipeline space usually reserved for diesel fuel is being switched over to piping gasoline, to help satisfy the demand, he said, which will cut into the supply of diesel.
While Gov. Nathan Deal took steps to discourage price-gouging, prices at the pump in Georgia have risen since the pipeline break was discovered Sept. 9. Tiffany Wright, public relations manager for AAA/the Carolinas, said the rise in the price of regular gas in Georgia was the highest in the four-state area. Over the last week the average price of regular gasoline in Georgia has risen 21 cents a gallon to $2.31 a gallon, compared to 13 cents a gallon in Tennessee and South Carolina and 11 cents a gallon in North Carolina, she said.
Drivers looking to fill their tanks can use this North Fulton map to find gas in that area, and these maps in Cobb County, Gwinnett County and DeKalb County.
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