It will still take several days for the fuel delivery supply chain to return to normal, Colonial said.
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Once the pipeline gas starts flowing again, prices are expected to return to around the $2 mark.
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory welcomed news that the line would likely restart on Wednesday.
In Delaware, motorists are feeling the pinch as supplies are diverted to larger states with greater fuel consumption demands.
“We lost a lot of business”, Patel said. He said his chief goal during the shortage has been to get fuel to first responders.
Some of these efforts have included state and county agencies foregoing non-essential travel.
The 500-foot (152- meter) bypass was needed to move fuel around the leak of its main gasoline pipeline in Shelby County, Alabama. On Sept. 9, a 36-inch pipeline near Birmingham, Alabama began leaking gasoline at least 252,000 gallons into a nearby pond. They include Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. That nationwide price climbed more than 2 cents just from Monday, by GasBuddy’s research.
In addition to higher prices, there will be still be some spotty outages throughout the Southeast. On Saturday, Colonial announced it would construct the bypass line. The state of emergency is still in effect protecting consumers from price gouging, AAA said. By Tuesday, his office said more than 1,000 complaints had been filed.
GasBuddy reported the price of regular gas in SC jumped more than 5 cents overnight and 18 cents over the last week to rest at $2.07 Tuesday.
For now, the St. Joseph area enjoys prices that have dropped in recent days, from $2.09 gallon to $2.05 at some locations this week.
“It changes overnight sometimes that much”, he said. “Resist the temptation to run to the gas station to top off their tanks”. “They run this operation very much like we have to run a natural disaster”.
“It may actually cost an individual gas station more to go out and get gasoline to bring to their customers than they can actually charge the customers because of this legislation”, he said.
“Gas prices in Virginia rose eight cents per gallon on average since Friday of last week and will likely continue to rise until the pipeline issue is resolved”, said Tammy Arnette, Senior Public Affairs Specialist for AAA.
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The Associated Press later reported that fumes from the leak are responsible for the deaths of three raccoons, a rabbit and vegetation near the site of the spill. The cause of the leak remains unknown.
