VA Gas Shortages May Linger As Colonial Restarts Pipeline

VIRGINIA — Colonial Pipeline started the process of getting its pipeline operations back up and running late Wednesday afternoon after a day filled with drivers across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic waiting in long lines to buy gas.

Following the restart of the pipeline, Colonial said it may take several days for the gasoline delivery supply chain to return to normal. Some regions served by Colonial, including Virginia and D.C., may continue to experience intermittent service interruptions during the multi-day start-up period.

"Colonial will move as much gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel as is safely possible and will continue to do so until markets return to normal," the company said Wednesday in a news release.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said he spoke with U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm about the timing of the restart.

"We will continue working closely with our federal, state, and local partners to mitigate the impacts of this incident in our Commonwealth," Northam said in a tweet.

A growing number of gas stations in Virginia were without supplies Wednesday as residents raced to the pumps to fill their tanks after learning of the pipeline outage.

As of Wednesday afternoon, 44 percent of Virginia’s nearly 3,900 stations were without gasoline, up dramatically from 17 percent earlier in the day, according to GasBuddy, which tracks supply. In D.C., about 10 percent of stations are out of gas.

Northam declared a state of emergency Tuesday to help the state prepare for potential supply shortages. The emergency declaration also allows state authorities to crack down on price gouging of gas and fuel.

Attorney General Mark Herring urged drivers to report suspected price gouging to the state’s Consumer Protection Section at consumer@oag.state.va.us or by calling 800-552-9963.

The anti-price gouging law prohibits retailers from charging a much higher price for necessary goods, like gasoline, during a state of emergency.

"We've seen some reports on social media of potential price gouging," Herring told Patch. "We're aware of a couple of social media reports in the Richmond area from last night. We are looking at those right now. ... If consumers have experienced that themselves or they see it somewhere I urge them to please contact our consumer protection section or the Virginia Department of Agricultural and Consumer Services, either one. We take all of these cases seriously."

In Fairfax City, a Patch reader said they were looking for a gas station Wednesday morning that had gasoline and was not mobbed with customers.

"No luck. We passed a Sunoco, Exxon and Mobil that were out of gas and another Sunoco and an Exxon that had long lines of waiting cars," the reader said.

At Belle Views Shopping Center in Alexandria, some gas pumps were closed around noon Wednesday at an Exxon station, but there were no lines.

The Virginia Department of Emergency Management issued a warning to drivers against "panic buying" of gas.

"This can create spot shortages at stations, which is what we DON'T want to happen," the department said Wednesday in a tweet. "Colonial Pipeline hopes to resume normal operations soon."

The national average price for a gallon of gasoline ticked above $3 for the first time since 2016 Wednesday, according to the AAA. The average price hit $3.008 nationally. Prices begin to rise around this time every year due to the summer driving season, but the Colonial Pipeline outage is contributing to the price increases.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said Tuesday that it is now allowing Virginia and other states in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic to use interstate highways to transport overweight loads of gasoline and other fuels under existing disaster declarations.

The Colonial Pipeline, which runs from the Texas Gulf Coast to the New York metro area, provides gas to about 45 percent of the fuel consumed on the East Coast, was hit by hackers on Friday who locked up the pipeline’s computer systems.

Officials emphasized that it was not a supply issue, but a transportation issue due to Colonial shutting down its pipeline system after last week's hack of its computer systems.

The cyberattack did not directly affect the pipeline system's operations, CNN reported Wednesday. Instead, Colonial proactively shut down its pipeline system late last week because its billing system had been compromised. Colonial was concerned it would not be able to figure out how much to bill customers for fuel they received if the pipeline continued to operate, according to CNN.

For Virginia's investigations into alleged price gouging, Herring told Patch that the state will go back about 10 days before the state of emergency to look at what the price was then and what the price was afterward. "Depending on the magnitude of that delta, further investigation and action might be warranted," he said.

"A lot of Virginians are struggling trying to make ends meet, and they should not have to be worried about being taken advantage of by people who are trying to take advantage of a crisis for their own monetary benefit at the expense of everyone else," Herring said.

When Virginians report instances of alleged price gouging at gas stations, the state can "get the word out to retailers that they cannot charge Virginians an unconscionable price and take advantage of an emergency at everyone else's expense," Herring said. "They have to treat consumers fairly, and we're going to make sure of that."

Colonial Pipeline said Wednesday that it has been working closely with the Biden administration, including the Department of Energy and Department of Transportation, as well as the FBI and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to resolve the effects of the cyberattack and get the pipeline system restarted.

Patch editor Emily Leayman contributed to the reporting of this story.

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