The Colonial pipeline

Here in Georgia, as well as up the coast to New York, we rely on the Colonial pipeline for our gasoline and other fuels. (I first reported on it here when Katrina struck.) The Oil Drum pointed out today that the Colonial pipeline originates in Houston, thus may be compromised when Rita hits. They offered a link to a page on RedNova that explains Where We Get Our Fuel.

Here are a few highlights:

• the Colonial delivers 100 million gallons of many different kinds of gasoline and other fuels a day
• the oil moves at 3 to 5 mph, taking 18.5 days to get from Houston to New York
• it costs about 2.5 cents per gallon to transport it
• statistically, pipelines are the safest method of transporting oil
• problems usually occur when there is digging near the pipeline

The AJC did not have any articles today about the impact of Rita on local gas supplies or prices today, but we are assuming there will be problems. My local Shell station is still out of gas, though prices are down to the $2.59-2.89 level at many places. I'm not stockpiling gas, but I did fill up my tank today.

I guess we'll have to just wait and see how the story unfolds.