SC Lowcountry not reporting gas shortages or panic buying after major pipeline shutdown
South Carolina’s Lowcountry, unlike other regions on the East Coast, hasn’t experienced a gasoline shortage or too many panic-induced long lines at the pumps in the days following the shutdown of a major U.S. energy pipeline.
The Colonial Pipeline Co., which has a 5,500-mile system running from Texas to New Jersey that provides about 45% of the fuel for the East Coast, halted operations after a ransomware attack over the weekend. The company said Monday that it’s hoping to restore the majority of functions by the end of the week.
The company’s CEO warned that fuel shortages could happen, but some experts have said that’s too early to predict.
S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson declared an “abnormal disruption in the market” on Tuesday, enacting the state’s price-gouging statute. The price-gouging law prohibits “unconscionable prices” during times of disaster, and price gougers can be charged with a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and/or 30 days in jail.
It doesn’t appear Beaufort or Jasper counties have had problems. although a few limitations have been noted: Drivers reported the Circle K in Hardeeville near Argent Boulevard and U.S. 278 had run out of gasoline late Monday.
Reached around 9:30 Tuesday morning, an employee said, “at the moment we do have gas.”
Parker’s, a gas station chain based in Savannah with multiple locations in the Lowcountry, announced Tuesday afternoon that it would be implementing a $50 limit on fuel purchases for each customer in an effort to “keep gas readily available.”
A commenter in a Jasper County ask-and-answer Facebook group said a gas station in Ridgeland off I-95 Exit 21 had begun limiting gas to 10 gallons per vehicle. Others said they had no trouble filling their tanks elsewhere in the county.
GasBuddy.com announced Monday that it launched a “fuel availability tracker” to help people find gas. Prices in the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Beaufort area ranged from $2.59 to $2.94 per gallon, according to the GasBuddy app.
“You won’t like the prices but there is gas,” a Facebook commenter said in a Hilton Head group.
AAA has warned that prices at the pumps will likely rise, but have not said widespread shortages are expected.
Tiffany Wright, spokeswoman for AAA Carolinas, told The Asheville Citizen-Times that “any current shortages are driven by people rushing to buy gas” rather than the cyberattack.
Some social media users are comparing the rush to get fuel causing local shortages to the beginning of the COVID-19 shutdowns when customers wiped shelves clean of toilet paper.
“It’s still early, but what I will say is that we do have ample supply,” Wright told the North Carolina-based newspaper Monday, the same day Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency that suspended “motor vehicle fuel regulations to ensure adequate fuel supply supplies throughout the state.”
As of Tuesday morning, S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster had not formally taken similar action. McMaster’s office told WMBF News in Horry County that because South Carolina is already in a state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic, “any waivers that would be needed to deal with the Colonial Pipeline are already in place.”
This story was originally published May 11, 2021 at 11:28 AM.
