Anyone planning on traveling through the east coast states within the next week? Plan ahead for possible challenges to find gasoline. Or at least for temporary price increases per gallon at the pump. According to an online article by Charles Riley of CNN today, it could be 5-15¢ in GA, NC, TN, and VA; and 10-20¢ in SC.
500,000 gallons of gasoline leaked from a ruptured underground pipe near Birmingham, Alabama last week. It’s been in the news, sort of. You can do a google search to find out more. But they had to shut down an entire pipeline that runs from Texas to New York to fix the break in the line in Alabama. The Colonial Pipeline could be closed into next week at least. The news indicated the states involved will be dispatching gasoline tankers and ships to get fuel to stations up and down the east coast.
Now, I usually write sort of tongue in cheek humor on my blog posts, but there’s not much to laugh about in this. Things being as they are, we need gasoline. We need pipelines to carry it. We’ve set up a catch 22 in which we need the technology to continue our busy lives as they are, but we are suffering the consequences of our engineering genius. And not just when it comes to pipelines.
All that fuel released into the environment can’t be good. If the fumes are too much for humans working on the line, aren’t they dangerous for birds and wildlife? What will happen to the plants and water in the area?
The reports say that pretty much most of that 500,000 gallons flowed into a mining retention pond nearby. Really? How convenient . That actually came from a group called Ecowatch. That’s a big deal–500,000 gallons. I calculated it would take me 384.62 years to use that much gas in my 2007 Pontiac G6 using it for work everyday.
I’m concerned. Especially since my sister and I are planning a trip to Tennessee beginning this Thursday. This could turn out to be more of an adventure than we planned if we have to search for stations to find fuel.
Perhaps you detect, and maybe share, the irony in my concerns. I am elaborating upon the effects of a terrible gasoline leak on the environment in one paragraph, and in the next, I’m worried if I’ll be inconvenienced by it on my trip south.
For wjhl.com article go to — http://wjhl.com/2016/09/16/massive-leak-at-alabama-gas-pipeline-will-impact-fuel-prices-in-tn-al-ga-sc-and-nc/
For CNN article go to — http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/16/investing/gasoline-prices-shortage-pipeline-leak/
For Ecowatch article go to — http://www.ecowatch.com/colonial-pipeline-gasoline-spill-2006499541.html
