New York – In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, drivers have been forced to endure long lines and non-working pumps in New York City and Nassau County, even as gasoline is much more readily available in most of New Jersey, Suffolk and north of New York City.
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A major factor in obtaining gasoline depends on where a region gets its supply from, industry insiders told the New York Times (http://nyti.ms/SF0NRk). The gasoline distribution system is “a sprawling, decentralized network” composed of different gas stations, all of which work with different distributors to ensure transportation of gasoline from regional terminals. The terminals receive and store gasoline which is deposited by tankers and barges. In New York City, many of the gas stations depend on distribution terminals located in Queens and Brooklyn. However, these terminals have either lost power, were damaged in the hurricane, or are not yet entirely operational. The Nassau County terminal based in Inwood, New York is also not fully functioning.
As of yesterday, 75 percent of New York City’s gas stations remained without gasoline. In contrast, the regional average stands at 24 percent, according to Gasbuddy.com, a website which has been monitoring which New York region stations have fuel. Patrick DeHaan, an employee at Gasbuddy.com, points out that the pressure on the system is also made worse by panicked drivers who have “a sudden, insatiable demand for gasoline” and are stocking up on gasoline they do not immediately need.
AAA Spokesman Michael Green said that even though power has been restored to many stations, the real issue lies with the distribution network. “This week, it is shifting more to being a supply-system problem: getting gasoline from storage to distribution terminals to gas stations to the car you drive,” he said. Nine out of 57 petroleum terminals impacted by the hurricane remain closed according to federal energy officials. Of those nine, seven are located in New Jersey, one in Brooklyn and one on Long Island.
New Jersey gasoline terminals have bounced back more quickly than in New York City because most of the terminals in the southern part of New Jersey remained undamaged, and gas stations in that area are situated closer to key refineries and transportation routes. The rationing system has also helped to balance supply and demand.
Ralph Bombardiere of the New York State Association of Service Stations and Repair Shops said efforts to resolve the gas shortage have been hampered by a lack of understanding on the part of elected officials about how the gasoline distribution system works. He notes that barges carrying oil could not dock at regional terminals for days after the storm because the New York Harbor was closed. “Someone in a tie should have said, ‘Where are the barges?’” he said. “It must have taken 10 to 15 telephone calls to get that message out. In case of a crisis, they have to start at the beginning.”
Meanwhile NBC News is reporting that the Gas Crisis Could Last for Weeks.
A bunch of Hog-Wash. Why cant they truck tankers from other states or even from Canada
Did Councilman Greenfield or Congressman Turner get any response from NYC officials to the press releases yesterday?
Is this crisis actually going to last weeks? Is waiting online 2 hours for gas the new normal?
I am on hold for 20 minutes and still no answer on the governors line to complain about the gas and you can’t leave a message because its full
Lies !!
Why can’t we get from other states
WHERE ARE YOU GOVERNOR? WHERE ARE YOU MAYOR? DOES IT HAVE TO BE AAA EXPLAINING TO US WHAT THE PROBLEM IS? WE ELECTED YOU – NOT AAA!!!!! YOU SAY THERE’S NO SHORTAGE – COME TO BROOKLYN AND TAKE A LOOK! TOO BAD I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH GAS TO GET TO NEW JERSEY – I USED ALOT UP DRIVING AROUND LOOKING FOR GAS IN BROOKLYN!!!!!
MAYBE YOU SHOULD EAT SOME POPCORN SO YOU CAN PRODUCE SOME GAS FOR US LOCALLY WHICH YOU WOULD EVEN BE ABLE TO DISTRIBUTE YOURSELF!!!!
ALL OF US ARE GOING CRAZY – DON’T WAIT FOR US TO GO POSTAL!!!!!!
How about my power?
Where the heck is LIPA?
Is my kids waking at 3 am with blue lips the new normal??
ALOT OF US HAVE WASTED SO MUCH GAS LOOKING FOR GAS THAT WE ONLY HAVE A MEASLY BIT OF GAS LEFT –
HOW ABOUT IF ALL OF US WITH THIS PROBLEM GO TO A DESIGNATED MAJOR BRIDGE OR TUNNEL AND STALL OUT THERE – I THINK THAT WOULD SEND THE RIGHT MESSAGE!!!!
ANYONE WILLING TO ORGANIZE THIS????
i heard( dont know if its true ) that bloomerg is behind all this bec he wants to controll the amount of cars that come into manhattan thats why only brooklyn part of ny still have shortage of gas!!! anyone has more info on that??
NJ solution to gas problem: odd/even and relieve the long lines.
NY solution to gas problem: 10 free gallons for everyone. Even people who don’t need gas will be lining up for miles!
Just goes to show you the minds of a rational Repub Gov and an irrational Dem Gov.
Go to NJ rather than wait for hours. Stations on Rte 1-9 south off the Goethels no line and it’s less than 20 miles from anywhere in Bklyn.
If you have a PBA card you can get lucky ahead of the line if you deserve it. I worked 2 out of 3 times once on 18th and coney and once on Ft. Hamilton.
And what’s the excuse for not implementing some sort of rationing system, like odd-even days, as they are doing in NJ to help alleviate the crunch. This alone should cut the wait for gas approximately in half.
The gas line siituation is uncivilized and deplorable.Group together and drive to White Plains,Tarrytown and any part of Northern Westchester.There are no gas lines ! But,most of county is out of power for 11 days…go figure
good luck everyone, I had a feeling this was going to happen after a week went by with no gas. lots of bridges are going to be making more money
anyone know if the Fort Lee gas stations (NJ side of GW bridge) are doing the odd/even stuff? Thanks
Anybody know the what the gas situation is by the Holland Tunnel? I’d rather avoid the Verrazanow toll if I can…
(of course I can take the Holland tunnel out and drive down to Linden, but that’s not ideall either)
The solution is very simple:
Allow gas stations to raise prices, and they will have an incentive to bring in gasoline from further away. This is simple economics. It works every day in every market (potatoes, cotton, gold, meat, you name it!) As long as the government interferes with the free market by insisting that gas stations don’t ‘price gouge’, the shortage will not end. I predict that gas prices only have to go up a dollar or two per gallon – and the problem will be solved literally overnight. (Why are prices allowed to go up when OPEC arbitrarily cuts supply, but not when an honest trucker wants to bring in gasoline from a few hundred miles away?) Its hard to believe that our elected officials don’t understand simple economics. Maybe if enough people forward this idea to their elected officials – they’ll wake up from their power-induced ‘hero’ roles and stop focusing on preventing ‘price-gouging’ and instead allow prices to go up in order to save their constituents hundreds of thousand of collective hours waiting in line….
Why are New Yorkers so silly to Kvetch endlessly about long lines for gas and suffer needlessly when there is ample gas for everyone who wants it and even at lower prices in NJ only 20 miles away.
Everyone can have all the gas they want with no line at all by just going to NJ.
Easy and Simple and no need to Kvetch.
As an Added Bonus:
We cut Bloomberg out of the picture because this way, profits will go to NJ, instead of NY.
Come on New Yorkers, it seems like you all to lazy even to change a President, all you want is sit down and every think gets done by its self, get up with the black-hats as Bloooomy said and protest, what is this Poland?