NYC gas shortages

[asterroc]

My father's baffled by the gas shortage in NYC, so I cobbled together my best explanation of why, revised below.

1. Right after the storm, early last week: NY Harbor closed to tankers. Some gas stations had no power so there was less gas to go around. There's a gasoline pipeline into NYC, which may have been barely enough to meet the demand at first. At this time the main demand for gas is to run generators where there's no power.


2. A day or two after the storm, middle of last week: Those gas stations which did have power began running out of gas without sufficient resupply. Businesses reopen, but much of NYC public transit does not, increasing the usage of gas as people drive to work.


3. End of last week: NY Harbor opened around Thursday last week, but it takes time for that gas to work its way into the system. Meanwhile, people driving to work are starting to need to gas up.


4. Last weekend and early this week: More of the same, but panic buying sets in, which more than offsets the reduced need for gasoline for generators.


5. Middle of this week: The gasoline pipeline into NYC suffers some sort of damage, and I think that was the straw that led Gov. Cuomo to ration gas in NYC and Long Island.

The NY Times seems to confirm aspects of my points 1-4.

Does anyone have things I left out, or different explanations?

Originally posted on Dreamwidth. comments there. Comment here or there.

Comments

[seekingferret.livejournal.com]

My understanding was that power to gas stations was a bigger problem than actual supply. Those stations that did have the ability to pump gas ran out quicker than their scheduled deliveries expected, but it wasn't that the actual supply was particularly low.

Certainly I think panic buying was part of it, but I don't think it was panic buying in the sense of fear that the city was going to descend into anarchy. People were just worried that they would end up stranded somewhere without gas. I spoke to co-workers with relatively long commutes, and they said that they have been constantly worrying if they got to a quarter tank left that they may not be able to find a place to refill, so they went in to refill at a higher level than they normally would. Of course, this means more frequent refillings at lower quantities, but doesn't help the problem of gas lines.

[blahblahboy.livejournal.com]

Currently you need a cop to check plates in order for the gas station to be allowed to pump. Also in this area I think there's a disproportionate number of drivers due to the lack of good transit options.

Beyond that, most stations here are fairly small (have 2-4 pumps) and thus throughput is much slower, and thus people waste more gas on line waiting and thus have to refuel more frequently. This of course may only be a second order effect.

The area has a lot of SUVs too for all the kids = greater gas tank capacity = longer wait times.

Honestly I'm as confused as you are about why the area is so bad. I can see maybe out in Long Island there was a lot of homes with no electricity so people were queuing up with gas buckets and filling those too to power their generators.

One other thing that's ridiculous here; some stations have limits on how muh gas you can buy at their inflated prices. Others are cash only. This can only exacerbate the wait time.