U.S. Government Declares State Of Emergency To Keep Gasoline Flowing

Truckers delivering fuel to 17 states and the District of Columbia impacted by the Colonial Pipeline shutdown can temporarily drive more hours than normal each day under an emergency exemption issued by the U.S. government late Sunday in the wake of the cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline, which runs the largest U.S. gasoline and diesel pipeline. The company through the shutdown pipeline generally moves about 45% of all fuel consumed in the eastern U.S.

As the Administration works to mitigate potential disruptions to supply as a result of the Colonial Pipeline incident, @USDOT is taking action today to allow flexibility for truckers in 17 states. https://t.co/mILRtlhjkP

— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) May 9, 2021

Colonial said Sunday that it was still developing a plan for restarting the pipeline and would only bring it back when “safe to do so, and in full compliance with the approval of all federal regulations” and gave no indication when its pipeline might be put back in service.

As markets opened Sunday evening, in electronic trading gasoline futures were up about 1.6% at $2.16 a gallon, after briefly rising more than 3% higher.

Why pipelines are vulnerable; from WSJ:

The U.S. has roughly 2.5 million miles of pipelines. Across that vast network are hundreds of thousands of devices—sensors that take myriad readings, valves that help control flow and pressure within a pipeline and leak detection systems—and all are vulnerable to attack, security experts said.

 -RW