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When the Colonial Pipeline reported a ransomware attack on May 7, a temporary shutdown and spike in gas prices made it challenging to find a full pump for a few weeks, but thankfully local stations managed to get just enough petrol to keep us on the road. However, almost two months later, those higher prices still haven’t come down.
“At $3.09, the national gas price average is at its highest of the year and not stopping,” the American Automobile Association reported. GasBuddy put the national average at $3.11 a gallon.
Meanwhile, in North Carolina the average gas price in the state is about $2.87 a gallon for regular fuel and $3.57 a gallon for premium fuel, AAA reports show. On May 4, a few days before the Colonial hack, the average regular fuel price was about $2.67 a gallon. And a year ago, the average gas price was only $2.06 a gallon.
On behalf of everyone who drive vehicles with six- or eight-cylinder engines – ouch. Then again, we’ve seen worse; the national average gas price over the holiday weekend in 2014 was $3.66, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
AAA experts said the national gas price average is at its highest of the year and will continue to climb through the Fourth of July weekend, when an expected 43.6 million Americans are set to hit the road. Hopefully, that didn’t keep people from coming to Cherokee County for all the holiday festivities Saturday in Andrews and Murphy, as we typically put on such good shows here that folks from surrounding counties often drive in to join the fun.
Colonial Pipeline’s 5,500-mile system is the largest refined products pipeline system in the United States, according to The Center Square, providing about 45 percent of all the fuel on the East Coast between Texas and New York. However, at least one person doesn’t think the attack is still playing a part in pricing.
“There is not a ‘gas shortage,’ ” Patrick De Haan at GasBuddy wrote. “Refiners are producing just 3.7 percent less gasoline than all-time records. The problem isn’t gasoline supply. The problem is there aren’t enough truck drivers to keep up with deliveries, made worse by the pandemic as some truckers left for jobs elsewhere or were let go.”
He told drivers not to worry if they “see a station with bagged pumps, it’s likely they’ll have gas in a few hours again, just try the next station.”
The number of people expected to travel this holiday is still less than what it was in 2019, when roughly 49 million Americans, a record-high, traveled over the holiday, The Center Square reported. De Haan suggests gas prices will only go up after July 4.
“With hurricane season soon coming into its prime, we have plenty more catalysts for a rise in price, and few that could restrain the situation,” he said. “Motorists should prepare to dig deeper for the second half of the summer, unfortunately.”
There are few things the Cherokee Scout enjoys less than writing about gas prices; after all, having the audacity to do so a decade ago resulted in a couple of local stations refusing the sell the Scout, even though the articles were accurate.
However, since gas prices have such an incredible amount of influence on the overall economy, we ignore it at our own peril. What happened to those hydrogen fuel cell engines with zero pollution?
David Brown is publisher & editor of the Cherokee Scout. You can reach him by phone, 837-5122; or email, dbrown@cherokeescout.com.