Katrina's Effect on Gas Prices
I'm sure you've heard more than enough about the price of gas these days, so I'll try to spare you the whining about how much I paid today (it was $2.77, by the way -- a personal record, but far better than paying $3.39 at the station across the street). Instead, I thought I'd post a graphic that might shed a bit of light on why it is that gas prices are skyrocketing, particularly across the South and East.
The graphic below depicts the pipeline system that was most severaly affected by Katrina.
[Source]
This system delivers around 126 million gallons of gas, heating oil, diesel, and natural gas per day from Texas/Louisiana to as far north as New York. It's been running well below capacity since Katrina hit so, if you're like me and you live in an area that is fed by these pipelines, be prepared for gas price increases to be particularly bad in your locale until things get back to normal (whenever that may be). This makes me wonder what's going to happen to natural gas prices as we get into cooler weather.
Incidentally, I've found myself manually switching the AC on/off during my daily commute in an attempt to run it as little as possible to improve fuel efficiency. Incidentally, if you keep your windows up and recirculate the air, the car remains pretty cool for quite awhile after shutting off the air. Anyway, I guess this means that $2.60/gallon is high enough for me to modify my driving behavior at least slightly. The funny thing is that I'll probably end up wearing out the AC switch and incurring a major repair bill in return for a tiny amount in gas savings. Talk about penny-wise and pound-foolish! But I just can't seem to help myself...
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"Katrina's Effect on Gas Prices" was first published at fivecentnickel.com
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Well I would like to state for the record that I live in Fort Worth TX not along the pipe lines that are directly shut down. We are seeing prices for reg unleaded shoot past 3.10 to day!!! I think you are very lucky at 2.77. I know its only a .33 difference (an increase of over 400$ a year of normal gas consumption) although ive tried to offset that by giving up all sodas at restaurants. It is still frustrating that 23% of us refineries are affected but the price is weeeellll past 23%.
And as a personal note the places that are truly price gouging deserve to be put out of business or wiped off the face of the earth. We should all here to help one another!!
Well, that $2.77 was accurate on the day I posted this, but it's gone weell beyond that. The cheapest I saw today was $3.29. With regard to the supply problem, there may well be gouging going on. However, there's also a good bit of hoarding going on, which makes the supply dip by even more than it otherwise would have.
Buy a smaller car! Seriously, if most Americans buy a smaller car for their next one we'll be making a huge step down the road of increased energy efficiency and freeing ourselves from an insane reliance on foreign oil. Of course if you really want to drive an SUV, you can go right ahead, but no complaining about gas prices allowed!
Enjoy cheap ($3) gas while you can. In a few years, it will be $5/gallon. These are the "golden days" of driving on the cheap.
