Georgia's Own Oil Crisis

Georgia just experienced its own peak oil crisis. Let me explain. For 21 days the southeast experienced a shortage in gas supply, resulting in no gas at the stations. The blame was placed on Hurricane Ike which caused a slowdown at the refineries in the gulf coast. After 3 days of no gas in Atlanta people panicked. As small supplies trickled in, two things happened: First, an artificial spike in price from $3.97 to $5.19 /gal, and second, in one run at the station, everyone felt the urge to top off all at once. Demand outstripping supply, station owners told me they could only expect to receive 4,000 gallons per shipment instead of 9,500 gallons. Now this was caused by a slight bubble in the supply system.

IF THIS HAPPENED IN THE SOUTHEAST DUE TO A NATURAL DISASTER IT CAN HAPPEN ANYWHERE IN THE U.S.

Think about our heating fuel for cold weather states. If it happened to fuel for automobiles then our fuel for heating homes could be affected the same way. One weather event late fall or early winter could cause a shortage in available home heating fuel, resulting in people freezing in their homes in the Northern states.