Will the pipeline hack have any impact on fuel in the NY area?
NEW YORK - As a gas crunch continues to impact much of the southeast, President Biden is asking Americans to watch how much fuel they put in their tanks.
The President is also telling gas stations not to take advantage of consumers by price-gouging fuel. The warning comes despite the pipeline that provides nearly half of the East coast’s gasoline supply restarting this week. In an update Thursday, Colonial Pipeline says the gas is on its way to most of its markets.
Meanwhile, gas gouging has become a common trend in much of the U.S. Gas prices have soared almost overnight.
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New York Attorney General Letitia James is urging those filling up in the Empire State to report dramatic gasoline price increases in an effort to crackdown on service stations taking advantage of drivers.
"If you’ve got half a tank, I wouldn’t worry about it because you could have all the fuel you want in a couple of days" says fuel expert Michael Lynch. He says there’s no need for gauging here in the northeast since there is more than one source of fuel.
"In New Jersey and Philadelphia especially, you get gasoline shipped in from Europe, you get crude oil that comes in from a variety of places and is refined locally. Plus you have a lot of storage affiliated with the refineries and the ports," Lynch said.
Experts compare this panic "fueling" to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when most folks went out to the supermarket and unnecessarily bought tons of toilet paper. President Biden, meanwhile, has signed an executive order to strengthen cybersecurity.