Running on empty in Nashville

[Ace Purple]

Nashville is in the midst of a gasoline shortage. As of yesterday an estimated 85% of the gas stations in the city (and in the outlaying areas) were out of fuel.

Lucky me had agreed to drive my parents to the airport this morning, and to do so effectively I planned to stay at their house in the city last night. One problem -- I was almost out of gas. Silly me had balked at paying $4.07 last week, but I found myself looking at station after station with the numbers off the signs and bags over the pumps last night. Not good times with my fuel meter on E.

A drive down the main road near I-24 in Smyrna (where I live) revealed gas station after gas station with no fuel. The one Shell station that had gas was a mob scene, with cars trying to pull in from all sides despite a police presence there to control the traffic. The fuel lines of the mid 1970s were before my time, but I saw first-hand what they looked like last night.

With Smyrna tapped out, I doubled-back toward Murfreesboro on I-24 (since I heard Nashville was no better), and I found a BP station with a line that was reasonable (compared with the mob scene at the Shell station). I waited and made it about 3-4 cars from the pump... only to see cars begin pulling out of line. Why? The BP station ran out of gasoline! Arrrgh.

Luckily I know the back roads around this area, so I tracked back toward downtown Smyrna hoping to get lucky with a non-interstate area station. I finally found a Kwik Sak that didn't even have prices up on its sign, but it turned out that they had received a small supply in (from what the owner told me, complete with the stereotypical Indian accent) and they were open late (it was 10:04 by that point) to sell it. They had a $40 limit and they only took cash, but no complaints from me; it sure beat running out of gas!

The problems continued this morning. The mob scene at the Shell station looked no better than yesterday, and this was at 7:30 a.m. This problem should hopefully be alleviated, but in the meantime it's not fun here in Music City...

[genlock]

Did your state enact any form of price controls on gasoline?

[AmpedNow]

What's the status on those big refineries in Houston? Last I heard, they had very little if any damage. Fuel has also dropped 16 cents here in the last two days. I wonder why the supply is still crippled in TN? Or anywhere for that matter?

[sportsvoice]

I guess we had some stations run out because other stations couldn't pump gas due to power outages. I've had no trouble finding gas to keep the generator running, although I am about to send an invoice to the power company for the $80-$100 worth of gas that we've bought (about $18 a pop to fill a 5 gallon can).

[Dr. Whiplash]

Several news reports say the cause of Nashville's gasoline shortage is panic buying.
Purchases there doubled in the past week. No panic and no problems in Memphis, Knoxville or Chattanooga.

We humans are strange animals.

[Ace Purple]

I don't know of any price controls that were enacted here in Nashville. I imagine that panic buying did have an impact, though it's strange how it has been isolated to the greater Nashville area.

Two related stories (the Mayor Dean referenced is Karl Dean, not Jean Dean):

~1~
A number of c-store chains with unbranded fuel, including Altoona, Pa.-based Sheetz Inc., are refusing to pay inflated wholesale prices that are in some cases $1 higher than those charged to branded affiliates, reported USA Today. "It’s an unfounded price point [oil companies] were putting on it," executive vice president of marketing, Louie Sheetz, told the paper. "They said, ‘How bad do you want it?’ I said, ‘Not that bad.’"

http://www.csnews.com/csn/news/article_ ... 2417&imw=Y


~2~
"Right now the key thing for people in Nashville is to allow the supply to catch up to the demand. The gas is getting to Nashville and in a few days we should be in good shape," said Mayor Dean.

The low supply of gas is not just affecting the gas stations. People at auto part stores say they are running low on the gas caps with locks on them. They are also running low on gasoline cans.

http://www.newschannel5.com/global/story.asp?s=9048541