Nashville: Run on Gas!

Matt Collins

Matt Collins

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[FONT=arial, helvetica][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Many Nashville-area stations run out of gas[/FONT]
 [FONT=Times New Roman, serif] By KATE HOWARD
Tennessean Staff Writer[/FONT][/FONT]


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[FONT=arial, helvetica]Rapidly rising gasoline prices became a moot point at some Middle Tennessee markets this weekend as the stations ran out of gas.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial, helvetica]Nashville-area stations started feeling the effects of Hurricane Ike on Friday, the morning the storm bore down on Texas. Many stores in Williamson County have been out of gas since that night, and pumps across Nashville have been bagged to let consumers know they can't fill up there.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial, helvetica]"It seems to be pretty much countywide," said Williamson County Sheriff's Cpl. Mark Livengood. "Several (stations) are out of everything but premium, and several are just completely out."[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial, helvetica]Livengood said the shortage hasn't led to any law enforcement problems, and officers haven't seen any increase in stranded motorists. But travelers are frustrated.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica]"Friday and Saturday, we had people coming in and saying they couldn't find gas anywhere," said Ashley Felts, a cashier at the Mapco Express on Hillsboro Road in Franklin, which has been out of fuel since Friday. "They were using our phone book."[/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica]Shortages have been reported across Nashville as well, including at stations in the West End area and in Donelson. Many are stores in the Mapco chain. A Mapco representative couldn't be reached Sunday night and other industry sources were not available to explain the reasons for the shortages.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial, helvetica][SIZE=+2]Metro boosts reserves[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica]Hurricane Ike battered the heart of the U.S. oil industry: Federal officials said a number of production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico were destroyed, though it was too soon to know how seriously that would affect oil and gas prices.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial, helvetica]Pump prices jumped above $5 per gallon in some parts of the country Sunday as the hurricane, which caused less destruction than feared, left refineries and pipelines idled.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial, helvetica]Fuel reserves for Metro Nashville vehicles have been increased at the request of Mayor Karl Dean, to ensure that gas is available for the city's public safety officers, Metro police spokesman Don Aaron said.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial, helvetica]"If an officer has difficulty finding fuel at neighborhood gas stations, he or she can drive to a government pump," Aaron said.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial, helvetica]While Nashville Fire Department officials have noticed the bagged pumps, drivers have been diligent about topping off their trucks, said spokesman Ricky Taylor.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial, helvetica]"We're trying to stay on top of it, because we know it could get critical on us also," Taylor said.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial, helvetica]Far beyond areas struck directly by high winds and flooding, Ike left behind a bizarre pattern of prices at gas pumps, with disparities of more than $1 a gallon in some states, and even on some blocks.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial, helvetica]"We're on the other side of the looking glass," said Claire Raines, who lives near Knoxville. "I just passed three gas stations with prices that ran from about $3.50 to close to $5 within walking distance."[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial, helvetica]Differences of more than $1 a gallon in the price of regular gas were reported in Smyrna and Nashville.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial, helvetica]Average prices exceeded $4 per gallon in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, South Carolina, Hawaii and Alaska, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial, helvetica]States fed directly by refineries along the Gulf Coast were particularly hard hit and supply may be sporadic for the next few weeks with refineries shut down, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst with the Oil Price Information Service.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial, helvetica]Whatever pain is being felt at U.S. gas pumps probably will be a very brief phenomenon, analysts said.[/FONT]


[FONT=arial, helvetica]http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080915/NEWS09/809150340/1006/NEWS01
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ours is $4.39 in WNC

a few stations were busted for price gouging at $5.99.
 
Highland said:
ours is $4.39 in WNC

a few stations were busted for price gouging at $5.99.
Click to expand...

Geez... gas in southern california was up to 4.69 a couple months back, but I just got some yesterday for 3.79..

somebody's screwin up..
 
I just got back from three days in FL, and I'm pretty much out of the loop. 14 hours days with little access to a computer and even less access to TV.

I can tell you that between the airport and Bellevue there was not a drop of gas, and my next door neighbors tell me that we MAY get gas next Friday.

LOVELY!

Can someone please give me Cliff Notes from the past week? Many thanks in advance.
 
Gustav emptited out the system ahead of ike. When the Trucks cant get Diesel they can't deliver food.
 
Here in East TN (tourist area) the gas earlier in the week was $4.49 to as high as $4.99/gallon. The prices dropped dramatically on Thursday to about $3.69 to $3.79/gallon and today I saw one at $3.49. I bet they are going to be rising back up though unfortunately since oil prices are on the rise.

No shortages though that I am aware of.
 
freelance said:
Can someone please give me Cliff Notes from the past week? Many thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
This is my letter to the editor:
___________________________________

Nashville Gas Shortage – Who To Blame?
Who to blame for the Nashville gas shortage?


Many are upset about the fuel shortages in Nashville. A friend of mine met a truck driver who hauls gas tankers to deliver to gas stations. This particular driver was concerned that since his truck operates on diesel, he might not be able to travel to his next location because there is no diesel available in the area. Imagine that! A truck full of gasoline not being able to supply gas stations because the truck itself runs out of fuel… One must laugh at the irony.

But the questions that will remain during and after this crisis include what caused the shortage, who is to blame, and what can be done to prevent a shortage in the future?

Many are foolishly calling for the government to intervene, increase regulations, force price controls, etc. However if one were to contemplate the gasoline market and follow it to the logical conclusion one would discover that the source of the problem is actually the government itself.

Yep, that’s right! The government is at fault and the full blame of the shortage can be laid at it’s doorstep. As any community college economics professor can profess, price-gouging laws do more harm than good; this gas shortage is a prime example.

It might be counter-intuitive however the laws of economics, specifically of supply and demand still apply. If demand for a product is high, and the product is scarce, then price will also climb.

At the pumps in Nashville recently there were people filling every type of container with gasoline in order to increase personal reserves. Since supply was low due to pipeline irregularities with Hurricane Ike, and there was a rumor that Nashville might run out of gas, people began hoarding. Thus a self-fulfilling prophecy occurred.

Where does the government come in, you might ask? Due to anti-price gouging laws distributors of gasoline are not allowed to significantly raise their price in a short amount of time unless the actual costs of the gasoline also increases. These obtrusive and arbitrary price-gouging regulations cause problems because gas in Nashville was recently undervalued.

In other words gas stations were selling gas too cheaply! Before you spill your coffee and want to punch me in the face for suggesting that we should have paid more for gas, please let me explain.

If the gas stations had raised the price of fuel then there would not have been a run on gas. High prices would’ve prevented drivers from filling up gas cans, milk jugs, coke bottles, and anything else they could get their hands on. If gas were $5/gal or even $10/gal there probably would not be much hoarding. In fact there would have been a lot of conserving.

Unfortunately the gas stations and their distributors did not react quickly enough to market conditions by raising their prices to the point where people were still able to purchase but not to hoard. They were selling gas too cheap and it was most likely due to anti-price gouging laws. Woe to any business these days, especially one that sells energy, to be even slightly hinted at the possibility that maybe they might have been potentially engaged in “price-gouging”.

However given a choice of paying $10/gal for gas or walking to work (which is impossible for most in Middle Tennessee), it would be a safe assumption that we would rather pay the higher prices than do without. A city with expensive gas is a much better situation than a city having none at all.

To explain the principle another way, imagine a family of 6. Two parents, two boys, and two girls who live on the Gulf Coast that are trying to escape the path of a major hurricane. Most likely they will pack their vehicle and drive inland to find a hotel. If the hotel rooms are $50/night the family might book 3 rooms – one for the parents, one for the boys, and one for the girls so that they can all be comfortable. However if the rooms are $350/night, chances are they will only book one or two rooms in order to save money. In other words they won’t hoard the rooms because it’s too expensive to do so; they will only buy what they absolutely need. Those extra vacant rooms can be used for other families looking to seek shelter from the storm.

Free market pricing free from governmental intervention allows for efficient use of scarce resources. If the gas stations were allowed to raise their prices according to the demand, people would attempt to conserve by purchasing only what was necessary instead of what they thought they might need.

Can you blame people for wanting to hoard gas if there are rumors of a shortage? No. The rumors can’t be stopped in a society that prides free speech as a fundamental right. However the situation could’ve been avoided if the gas stations were allowed to raise their prices to prevent this run and follow the basic and natural law of economics. But they were not allowed because the government always tries to regulate the marketplace.

We would be aghast if the government tried to regulate the speech of others. Why is it that we allow the government to regulate the market if we don’t allow the government to regulate speech? It is hypocritical to regulate the market and not free speech. Therefore in the interest of a free and open society neither the marketplace of ideas or the marketplace of commerce should be regulated.

While the government’s unwanted hand that caused this crisis is an inconvenience to most, it’s damaging to many. Most local citizens are not able to go shopping, or visit bars, or go hear a band play, or have a pizza delivered, or catch a taxi. This is destructive to our local economy and is just short of an atrocity.

It should be obvious by now what caused the shortage and abolishing price-gouging laws can prevent this from happening again in the future. But who is ultimately to blame? The actions of our irresponsible government creating nonsensical price-gouging laws interfering in the marketplace at the request of a largely ignorant populace who does not understand fundamental economics.

Matt Collins
Nashville, TN
Member of Ron Paul’s ‘Campaign for Liberty’
www.CampaignForLiberty.org

Matt Collins is a libertarian leaning talk-radio producer at 99.7 WTN and was a key organizer in the Ron Paul for President campaign in Nashville during the 2008 primary election. He currently is a member of Ron Paul’s newly formed Campaign for Liberty whose mission is “to promote and defend the great American principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a noninterventionist foreign policy, by means of educational and political activity.”

 
Last edited:
I have the perfect solution

brad_bicycle.jpg


and if you have a big family or would like to "bikepool"

ConferenceBike.jpg
 
idiom said:
Gustav emptited out the system ahead of ike. When the Trucks cant get Diesel they can't deliver food.
Click to expand...

Ike left every plant in the Houston area broke down.
Ike destroyed 4 or more oil platforms in the gulf.
Ike is responsible for far more impact than any other hurricane this year.
 
Nashville has gas:

I haven't seen anything but regular (89 octane); however, every station I've seen has it.
 
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