Texas "Gasoline Shortage" rant

[txchamps]

Whether you believe there is a shortage or not, the fact remains that in certain parts of Texas, it is difficult to get gas. In San Antonio it has been a real issue, with long lines, 80% of outlets with no gas at all, and those that do have gas running out in 45 minutes. Problems as well in Austin, and most certainly Houston and all along the gulf coast. Pipelines have been shut down, and a number of large refineries are off line. It has been a real problem, although I lately see signs of abatement, thank god.

What torgues my jaws is the way certain drivers behave. Pull into a fast food place, a 7-11 or Walgreens or what have you, and you will see fully half of the vehicles that are there with their engines running. Sometimes with no people in them. And you can bet that a goodly chunk of them are SUV's, trucks, and sundry others that get crappy mileage at their most efficient, but in the parking lot are getting 0 miles per gallon, running their V-8's for 15 to 20 minutes, just for the convenience of having the AC running. All during a gas crisis. Not to mention the environmental effect of heating up the parking lot and filling it with noxious fumes. And you can also bet that these are the ones complaining most loudly about the long lines, even though they are the ones, with their gigantic gas tanks, who take the longest to fill up. I saw one guy with two 50-gallon drums in the bed of his pickup taking the time to blithely fill them up, in the head of a line in which people were waiting an hour or more to get to a pump. Such people ARE the gas shortage.

I know a bunch of you (and I even know which of y'all it will be) will give me s**t about this rant, but I am invoking the old 60's mantra: "If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem".

[wa-chiss]

It was literally the people who bought into the whole "gas shortage" crisis that created the gas shortage. Had everyone pulled their head from their derriere there would be no shortage.

[Buzzman]

What bugs me even more, and I'm in Canada, is the instant cash grab by the gas companies that are hiking the price of gas by 25%, or more.
The price of gas here went up the same day the storm hit.
Supposedly the gas supply is limited, so somehow that translates into higher prices. B.S.
Less than half of our gas comes from the U.S., plus it takes months for newly refined gas to find it's way up north and into our tanks.
The gas that went up in price was already in the storage tanks in the ground under the pumps.
There are also huge storage tanks in our city, filled to the brim. That gas was also already here.
It's a pure cash grab. It's criminal, and our Government can't, or won't, do anything about it.

[txchamps]

It was literally the people who bought into the whole "gas shortage" crisis that created the gas shortage. Had everyone pulled their head from their derriere there would be no shortage.

Right on the money

[PapaSmurf2k3]

All of these things bug the crap out of me. I remember when everyone was bitching about high gas prices a few years back, and I'd be doing 70mph on the highway and get passed by large SUVs doing 80+, and they are all the ones that were bitching the loudest.

[txchamps]

All of these things bug the crap out of me. I remember when everyone was bitching about high gas prices a few years back, and I'd be doing 70mph on the highway and get passed by large SUVs doing 80+, and they are all the ones that were bitching the loudest.

Preaching to the choir, PapaSmurf, but I like it.

[wa-chiss]

Right! And lets not forget the people who were filling up their bed tanks and auxiliary tanks. I saw a guy filling up regular 5 gallon buckets and covering them with walmart bags. Not sure how "Gas" proof those are, but they can't be legal. And yet another thing in shortage, gas/diesel cans.