Metro Atlanta drivers began the work week facing higher gas prices and some shortages, 10 days after a key pipeline started leaking in Alabama.
Gasbuddy, a website that monitors prices in different metro areas, showed the Atlanta average at $2.49 Monday afternoon. That was up from $2.16 before the pipeline problem was detected last Tuesday.
More worrisome was the prospect that the spotty outages that started over the weekend could start to affect business and government operations if the shortage worsens.
DeKalb County School District spokesman Quinn Hudson said Monday that buses may be reduced to transporting students to and from school during the shortage. He said the district has access to three vendors as part of the North Georgia Fuel Cooperative, which includes 28 other school districts.
Staffers will meet with providers Tuesday to get additional information on how long the shortage could affect travel, he said.
“The district transportation department recently contacted our mobile diesel fuel vendor and was informed that there is only one pipeline working at this time, which is being used to alternate the pumping of diesel and unleaded gas until the repairs are completed,” he said. “The district has received no published information regarding how long it will take to take to repair the damage.”
The district, as a member of the North Georgia Fuel Cooperative, has access to three gasoline vendors. Combined, the buses hold approximately 26,000 gallons of diesel and 14,000 gallons of unleaded gas, with buses running two to three days before needing to refuel.
Gov. Nathan Deal signed an executive order Monday preventing stations from significantly hiking prices, citing news reports of "substantially" increased prices in some markets.
The order echoes existing state law that already prevents gas gouging during a “state of emergency,” which Deal declared in a separate executive order last week. It allows gas stations to only hike prices based on the increased cost of transporting fuel.
Gasbuddy, a website that monitors prices in different metro areas, showed the Atlanta average at $2.49 shortly after Noon on Monday. That was up from $2.16 before the pipeline problem was detected last Tuesday.
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Colonial Pipeline, an Alpharetta company that operates the pipeline, over the weekend started a temporary project to bypass the damaged stretch that has leaked more than 250,000 gallons of fuel near Helena, Ala., southeast of Birmingham.
Deal and several other governors issued orders last week to lift restrictions on truck drivers to help guarantee more fuel deliveries after the spill threatened fuel supplies in five states.
But spot outages cropped up around metro Atlanta over the weekend, with some stations shutting down pumps while others operated normally. It was unclear if the outages were a result of crimped supply or a run on gas by worried drivers.
The gasoline pipeline leak does not affect the supply of jet fuel to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, so there is no effect on airline operations, an airport spokesman said. UPS said it is “operating in a normal fashion, and closely monitoring the situation with suppliers to ensure continued smooth operations.”
Colonial on Monday said it is shipping additional gasoline from Gulf Coast refineries to terminals in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas to "minimize supply disruptions."
Deal spokeswoman Jen Talaber Ryan said the governor has “done everything possible” to ease concerns about fuel shortages, including getting a federal waiver to give commercial truck drivers more leeway to haul motor fuel on Georgia’s highways this week.
State officials also caution Georgians not to rush to the pumps unless they are running low on fuel and warning them not to hoard gasoline.
“I urge the public to maintain regular consumption levels and travel schedules in order to reduce further interruption in fuel supply,” Deal said in a statement.
Colonial, which initially underestimated the extent of the spill, said the line should be repaired sometime this week. The company has not been more specific, but it has issued several online statements about the event.
According to GasBuddy, a handful of stations still charged less than $2 a gallon for regular on Monday morning. Among them, a Pure in Covington, a RaceTrac in Kennesaw and a smattering of buying clubs. The highest price listed: $2.99 at several stations.
The pipeline – one of two operated by Colonial — carries fuel from refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast up into the Northeast, passing through Atlanta along the way. And the spill has had much greater impact here.
Nationally, the average price of gasoline has barely moved: $2.18 a gallon a week ago, $2.20 a gallon today, said GasBuddy.
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Marlon Walker and Kelly Yamanouchi contributed to this report.
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