East Coast Facing Gas Shortage Due To Ransomware Attack 157
New submitter TheCowSaysMoo writes: Gas stations from Florida to Virginia began running dry and prices at the pump jumped on Tuesday as the shutdown of the biggest U.S. fuel pipeline by hackers extended into a fifth day and sparked panic buying by motorists. About 7.5% of gas stations in Virginia and 5% in North Carolina had no fuel on Tuesday as demand jumped 20%, tracking firm GasBuddy said. Prices rose to their highest in more than six years, and Georgia suspended sales tax on gas until Saturday to ease the strain on consumers. North Carolina declared an emergency. Colonial Pipeline has forecast that it will not substantially restore operations of the 5,500-mile pipeline network that supplies nearly half of the East Coast's fuel until the end of the week. The company preventively shut the pipeline on Friday after hackers locked its computers and demanded ransom, underscoring the vulnerability of U.S. energy infrastructure to cyberattack.
Our infrastructure is crumbling (Score:5, Insightful)
Our critical sections are vulnerable to external attacks, but hey, stock prices are at record levels and corps are paying zero taxes, so there's that...
(in other words, something is seriously broken in the country)
Re:Our infrastructure is crumbling (Score:4, Insightful)
Our critical sections are vulnerable to external attacks, but hey, stock prices are at record levels and corps are paying zero taxes, so there's that...
(in other words, something is seriously broken in the country)
Not only on yours. This crap is happening everywhere. It only happens that your country is currently one of the most rich of the World, what made you a primary target.
As soon as USA fixes their infra-structure (and fix it they will, otherwise they will go kaput), will rain hell on the rest of us....
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Re:Our infrastructure is crumbling (Score:5, Insightful)
This "crap" is happening because management departments are largely incompetent when it comes to IT security.
FTFY. There is no point in the pipeline being accessible from the Internet.
Re:Our infrastructure is crumbling (Score:5, Funny)
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You'll curse things is some a-hole starts making the thing randomly flash all the time. If the convenience worth it from the vulnerability you now get to manage? How about your fridge, should the temperature setting be remotely adjustable, or perhaps even remotely disabled?
The more important something is, the more insulated it should be. Really important things should be air-gapped from the web, full-stop.
Re: Our infrastructure is crumbling (Score:2)
What evidence is there that the pipeline controls were exposed to the Internet?
Perhaps what was hit with ransomware was their billing system. Profits come first.
How do we know that this was not done with the assistance of an insider? The Darkside group solicits and promises a share to people who have access . It's possible they bribed their way in .
Let's try to separate what facts we know from the guessing going around.
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That is evidence that the pipeline is at direct risk. You have no evidence that contradicts that. You might suspect they are lying, but perjury is still "evidence", until proven otherwise.
You are guessing that other people's statements are guesses, and not based on public statements by the pipeline company.
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Here's an update.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/12... [cnn.com]
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Then someone runs a cable from an Internet connected computer to a SCADA control point, because it's convenient.
I blame the "engineers" because they deliberately designed an unsafe system, then required vigilance on the user's part to keep it safe, and we know users are idiots.
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It might not be. Their corporate systems were what was infected, but they don’t know how far the crackers got in. Even a well protected link between the corporate network and the SCADA network needs to be treated as suspect when you have been taken over.
I don’t get why these systems are so poorly designed; 20-25 years ago we would build separate safety PLCs that prevented things from operating out-of-bounds in terms of safety or function, and SCADA as a sparate layer. The PLC systems were muc
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The users bypass the air gaps because security by enforcing zero functionality is stupid. Then you get a SCADA network indirectly connected to the Internet with no real security protecting it.
Building the SCADA on the Internet, and securing it appropriately is actually a better plan than what almost all SCADA networks do today.
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I have to respond because I am getting tired of reading this horse shit response.
You know what people with your attitude are EXACTLY why we have crisis like this. Its YOUR fault! Let me clue you into the reality. Management does not accept your view here, the "let's not connect it to the internet" ship has left port and is over the horizon. There are to many good reasons to connect it to the internet, at least with layers of indirect access like jump boxes etc. Its a huge productivity win for some of the
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Yeah, I could dial in from home to a PC, then connect through a PCAnywhere serial connection to an unsecured SCADA. The only security was username/password (PAP/CHAP) on the dial-up. That's what management
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HELLO - this is point. If you just say 'No' you are an obstacle. You cannot hold back the tide, it will flow around you.
Let me explain the politics of this because a lot of techies don't f'ing get it.
When you say 'No' to business users need chances are pretty good they are going to go cry about it to their management. Their management wants them to succeed because their own careers are tied that, its their job to enable that persons success. So they will likely respond - well if IT won't do it then I will
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Re:Our infrastructure is crumbling (Score:4, Interesting)
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Restaurants support a large number of over qualified people also. There are not enough good jobs for these people or the jobs are not where these people want to live.
At this time unemployment with the bonus checks is supporting both under and over qualified people. If the Democrats can keep this going they will have instituted a UBI and a higher minimum wage without anyone getting to vote against it.
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Re: Our infrastructure is crumbling (Score:1)
The people who fill up everyday because they drive 100 miles to work in their Hummer, because they are just that patriotic, are now filling up twice a day.
Doesn't sound like an outlier or anything.
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I dunno about you, but I did my time stuck at home.
I'm fully vaccinated, about as safe as I can get (according to the scientists)...and I'm out again.
I've been going out to eat at restaurants again, many of which are so crowded that there are waits to get a table (no purposely non-seated tables, 100% capacity).
For many of us, the pandemic is over.
Masking restrictions lifted, businesses opening, etc.
How mu
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For many of us, the pandemic is over.
Sure, for those of you living in la-la land.
The pandemic ain't over until Covid-19 and its descendants are wiped out.
Until then, there's the possibility of a new and worse mutation being harbored in an unvaccinated population, possibly even in majority-vaccinated nations, let alone in nations which aren't getting adequate doses.
How much longer do you expect people to give up their lives and livelihoods?
I expect more people to give up their lives because of the unmasking. But asking people to care about people they don't know is generally too much to ask... in the USA.
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They brought it up first.
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You're really going to try to blame the gas shortage on the Hummer owners driving 100 miles to work each day in them? Good luck finding the statistically significant number of them to create the issue!
What's more of a problem is just the panic buying where everyone decides to go to the gas station on the same day, rather than spreading it out randomly across a 7 day week as they'd usually do -- plus people bringing multiple 5 gallon gas cans to fill and "stock up".
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plus people bringing multiple 5 gallon gas cans to fill and "stock up".
You mean like these fat Americans [9cache.com] in their fat SUV?
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A small number? How about 20% of gas stations have no gas? Is that still a "small number?"
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GP is correct in this case. Specific regions have an increased demand problem; there is sufficient storage in the system to handle consumption requirements for a week at least, although some stations (currently less than 10%) will likely have supply interruptions, especially in Georgia to North Carolina. New York down to Virginia will likely not be impacted if operation is restored this week.
Most countries are immune to this (Score:1)
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So does that mean this wouldn't happen in say Great Britain or Australia then? How about South Korea or Taiwan? Those "primitive" places.
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or they weren't idiot enough to hook anything critical up to the internet in the first place...
Re:Our infrastructure is crumbling (Score:5, Insightful)
(in other words, something is seriously broken in the country)
Yes and it is that shiny new lands better on the newspaper than mundane keeping everything magically working. Additionally, cities constantly keep trying to slash budgets so that they can attract hot flashy and new companies with the extra cash and tax-free gifts.
I was reading an article about COBOL programing here. [logicmag.io] Here's a part that stuck out for me.
So why was COBOL framed as the culprit? It’s a common fiction that computing technologies tend to become obsolete in a matter of years or even months, because this sells more units of consumer electronics. But this has never been true when it comes to large-scale computing infrastructure. This misapprehension, and the language’s history of being disdained by an increasingly toxic programming culture, made COBOL an easy scapegoat. But the narrative that COBOL was to blame for recent failures undoes itself: scapegoating COBOL can’t get far when the code is in fact meant to be easy to read and maintain.
That said, even the most robust systems need proper maintenance in order to fix bugs, add features, and interface with new computing technologies. Despite the essential functions they perform, many COBOL systems have not been well cared for. If they had come close to faltering in the current crisis, it wouldn’t have been because of the technology itself. Instead, it would have been due to the austerity logic to which so many state and local governments have succumbed.
Governments are not putting the resources into the the things they have built to maintain those resources, because maintenance is transparent. Maintenance is a budgetary burden. Maintenance is not popular among those seeking new be they in the public or government.
In order to care for technological infrastructure, we need maintenance engineers, not just systems designers—and that means paying for people, not just for products. COBOL was never meant to cut programmers out of the equation. But as state governments have moved to slash their budgets, they’ve been less and less inclined to pay for the labor needed to maintain critical systems.
I get it, nobody likes paying taxes. But we do not get to pay for people to maintain our infrastructure if we do not allocate enough funds to pay for them. Additionally, we don't get to direct money to these people to maintain if we are always chasing flashy and new companies with tax-free sweeteners or building big flashy new conference centers while the bridge leading to it crumbles.
The priorities of governments have been far too short-sighted as of late and we ultimately pay for that short-sightedness long term.
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Governments are not putting the resources into the the things they have built to maintain those resources, because maintenance is transparent.
This was a private company which got screwed. Just like the SolarWinds hack. Just like Facebook. Just like Target.
Perhaps these companies should put more resources into the things they have built instead of handing it over to extra bonuses and salaries for CEOs [cbsnews.com].
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But they hire managers instead of engineers
I've worked in three different States. Now I get that's not all 50, but this BS hand waving from the three States that I have worked with. Department sizes are down, period. It has never been a case, at least form what I've seen, where it was once 20-to-1 employee/manager ratio to 20-to-8 ratio or whatever, it has been it was once a department of thirty and now is a department of three.
Reduce the taxes, cut management overhead, and hire real workers in government
And this is the blame shifting I have always heard. This is usually spouted off by those looking to soak more money int
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Department sizes are down, period
Department sees may be down, but you are not seeing the governmental ranks growing outside useful departments.
But the size of government isn't increasing.
Find ANY state where the number of government employees has gone down by any significant amount.
You say your department has shrunk a lot - that's just one aspect of the picture. They are taking ever increasing government funds and allocating them to places that are not really infrastructure.
If states where you worked passe
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They are taking ever increasing government funds and allocating them to places that are not really infrastructure.
Yeah, and saying, well send them less money doesn't mean they stop sending those dollars to "not really infrastructure". They're going to continue to send $X.xx to "not really infrastructure" come hell or high water. And you might think, well then people will vote that person out. Well the next guy is just going to send that money to "not really infrastructure". And then we vote that person out and the next person sends that money to "not really infrastructure". And on, and on, and on, and on, and on,
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nothing to do with infrastructure, everything to do with NSA/CIA hoarding vulnerabilities they then weaponised instead of being responsible and advising vendors of these vulnerabilities. once hackers got their hands on the tools the NSA/CIA made and discovered the vulnerabilities they targeted a whole set of tools were made and are being sold to whoever ponies up the cash.
also - that even 'Russian Cybercriminals' are behind these attacks is conjecture - anyone who knows how to contact the sellers of the too
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Every time i hear "the russians are coming", i put it in perspective: this is a country with an economy smaller than Italy or Canada, and a population smaller than Bangladesh
Re:Our infrastructure is crumbling (Score:5, Interesting)
Colonial shut everything down because the hackers potentially had access to passwords, control information, etc that could potentially allow them to gain control. Rather than take the risk of a further breach they took the precautionary measure of a shut down.
This is similar to the passcode for a banks vault getting stolen, and the bank shuts down until a new lock can be installed. The hackers never gained access to the vault, and it was done out of an abundance of caution. This isn't really an infrastructure failure, it's a cyber security failure no different than what's been seen at hospitals, tech companies, financial firms, etc.
The only infrastructure that failed here is of the data-breach/cybersecurity nature and it's pretty clear at this point throwing money at the problem wont fix it since it's of a very technical nature.
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If passwords are all it takes to get from the public internet to critical control systems then the problem isn't the breach of the outer systems, it's the design of the total system of the network.
Those critical control systems should literally not be connected to the internet, protected by air gap or at least one-way network.
Any links needed for control automation like responding to grid events should be point to point, not delivered over the open internet, insofar as that is possible.
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A fair assessment.
Re: Our infrastructure is crumbling (Score:2)
Corporations make money by selling us stuff. If they pay taxes they will take the money from us by increasing the prices of things. Oh and by the way, a lot of people depend on owning shares in companies for their retirement. So if you destroy companies and the economy the government is going to have to get into manufacturing, and that NEVER works out. So either way you pay for it. Capitalism may suck but all the other systems have bigger flaws.
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If you really believed in capitalism and the free market, you would realize that companies already charge a price that optimizes profits. Increased prices will reduce sales and hence reduce profits. Competition is (mostly, but not always) a thing.
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Prices are optimized for profit which is dependent on demand, but when there is a tax the prices of everything is higher. So the end result is fewer sales (reduced quality of life) and greater unaffordability of goods.
A Ford costs $20,000 because a Chevy costs $20,001 .. so the consumer who needs a car to go to work can choose the better deal. If Ford and Chevy both have to pay a $1000 tax, the Ford will cost $21,000 .. and so not as many people will be able to own a car at all -- Ford or Chevy. Due to redu
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What do you suggest? Printing money? Borrowing more? Both of them will eventually lead to inflation which may screw with profits.
Could cut spending, let the nations infrastructure deteriorate, but that might screw with profits too. Perhaps you have a fantasy that the government would cut spending on only wasteful things, doubtful based on history where a politicians first priority is getting reelected with pork being the go to way to do that.
Could raise the citizens taxes, but then the corporations will hav
You get what you pay for (Score:2)
We also have "anti-gouging" laws. So if a private company creates redundancy in the event of an emergency or stock piled a good such as masks or protective gear they would never be able to sell them at the emergency market rate. Far better that our nurses don't have protective gear than for some c
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Our critical sections are vulnerable to external attacks, but hey, stock prices are at record levels and corps are paying zero taxes, so there's that... (in other words, something is seriously broken in the country)
The company that operates this pipeline and shut it down is Colonial Pipeline [colpipe.com], and according to their About Us page, they are owned by five VCs, including one which looks like the Koch Bros. Looks like Private Industry choked on this one today. I'm really enjoying all this rage against Biden on here... But I guess it's fine, because that company has Values.
Anyone have more details (Score:3)
Re:Anyone have more details (Score:5, Interesting)
The billing system was made inoperable, so the pipeline was shut down because the product couldn't be metered and charged for. Sorry, no citation.
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This makes more sense than any scenario I can imagine involving control computers that, worst case, should've been possible to restore with new hardware from backups in a few hours if the IT department isn't made entirely of PHBs.
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The billing system was made inoperable, so the pipeline was shut down because the product couldn't be metered and charged for. Sorry, no citation.
Well that's certainly one ignorant way of prioritizing profit over functionality, especially with a potential impact like this.
One would think if the pumps and meters were operational, then keep your fuel flowing while you declare a financial emergency if funds are that desperately needed.
(Desperate? Sadly, this is when we find that Colonial Pipeline probably has billions in cash reserves.)
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No, and I doubt anyone ever will. They'll never let the results of a forensic audit be known because if there is even a hint of them skimping on secuirty or them cutting corners, (aka "business as usual") then their liability for negligence gets them all sued into oblivion.
Hence the headline "CISA yet to obtain 'technical information' on Colonial Pipeline hack [go.com]".
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It might be as simple as changing SCADA access credentials that could have been leaked, at least for now. They will need to assess if detailed operational and control drawings have been leaked what risks and mitigation measures are necessary to harden the system from future threats.
Thank goodness for COVID (Score:2)
I've filled my tank once in the last 15 months.
And it's still full.
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Might want to drain it, that fuel is likely varnish by now.
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It was relatively recently that I filled it, but I do need to double-check exactly when.
I've been kinda hoping somebody drops a piano on it. Looks like I won't really be needing it anyhow.
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This isn't the 1960s, they put preservatives in it now.
But if a person was worried about it, they could just add some fuel system cleaner to the tank; done.
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Old stuff could sit on a shelf for many years - the new stuff needs stabilizer or it's junk in one or two. It also eats fuel lines in lawn equipment - but I'm sure the sellers of lawn equipment really don't mind the extra business.
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Easiest for the small engines is to buy the premium without ethanol, the 2 cycles want mid-grade anyways and it's not like the equipment uses that much that an extra buck or 2 a month isn't worth it to preserve the equipment.
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Yeah I JUST heard this for the first time, which is weird if it's that easy. Sadly, too late to save the carb on my string trimmer, though.
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Probably depends on where you live. Here in BC there's the Chevron Super Premium that is ethanol free. Stihl also sells mixed pure gas in cans that'll keep for years, not cheap but for a small yard likely worth the money.
As for your carb, if you're lucky, it just needs a diaphragm, which is easily replaced, blow out everything too while in there.
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I've filled my tank once in the last 15 months.
And it's still full.
Good luck with that "gasoline" and the car that's trying to choke it down.
You're probably going to need it.
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"Georgia suspended sales tax on gas..." (Score:3)
So gas stations can raise their price by an equivalent amount? Brilliant!
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The prices are not set by a markup percentage. Lowering taxes on a product does not lower the retail price.
Don't be such an idiot, the economy is outside, not on AM radio.
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The prices are not set by a markup percentage. Lowering taxes on a product does not lower the retail price.
In the US, almost everywhere, gas is most certainly sold to consumers with tax included, and with that tax removed it would directly drop the price. If you see a sign that gas is $3.00/gallon, and you fill up 6 gallons, you are most assuredly paying $18.00 and nothing more. Gas stations already purchased the gas with tax included, and they do not remit taxes from the gas sold to consumers to the localities where they nexus. The question I'm interested in - do the gas stations get reimbursed for the taxes th
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Really? Read what I was responding to - it sounds like he was saying that you buy gas at $x, but since it's taxed, you end up paying ($x + $t). If $t was not applied, the price is still $x, which appears to be the point he was trying to make. However, when you buy gas at the pump, the taxes are already included in $x, and I continued on about why that is. The big question is at what point does the price the gas station pay for gas change, and that would affect how the price changes for consumers. However th
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Lol, yeah, I'm not sure Georgia understands how free markets work.
Hey honey, the hackerz are attacking so they suspended taxes so we can all stockpile gas! Grab every container you can find, we're going shopping!
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So gas stations can raise their price by an equivalent amount? Brilliant!
Much like billionaires getting richer from a pandemic, this is actually a very dangerous move that's ripe for corruption.
Removing the tax ensures that gas stations suddenly enjoy profits like never before (remember they usually get pennies per gallon, and to your point they're sure as shit not going to offer discounts right now). That's not exactly what I call a deterrant for someone to attack a pipeline in the future, merely to ensure a similar emergency is declared, which shifts profits nicely into someo
Ransomware (Score:2)
On one hand, I believe ransomware blackhats should be subject to capital punishment as at least life imprisonment... on the other hand, they expose vulnerabilities that state actors will exploit someday sooner or later.
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On one hand, I believe ransomware blackhats should be subject to capital punishment as at least life imprisonment... on the other hand, they expose vulnerabilities that state actors will exploit someday sooner or later.
(Victim) "You attacked our broken software and network that hasn't been patched or properly secured for years!!"
(Hacker) "Yeah, who is criminally stupid here again? I'm practically your fucking security consultant."
Tends to make you wonder which head we should be putting on the chopping block first here...
SCADA (probably) + internet = disaster (Score:2)
An interstate fuel pipeline is obviously part of critical national infrastructure but clearly managers continue to connect pieces of it to the internet at breakneck speed and/or avoid proper security tactics and procedures. Dollars to donuts it probably wasn't even the fault of windows XP, probably there's Windows 95 or Windows 2000 system somewhere in the mix there. (I'm tempted to add Win 3.11 to the mix, but I'm going to stay with the safer bet) Almost certainly there's NOT state-of-the-art security zoni
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Seeing as it was ransomware there's around a 95% chance it got in by some idiot with more computer rights than they needed (and less brains than they should have) clicked a phishing link or a boobytrapped pdf/doc/xls from an untrusted source. It got on their computer, and hopped onto the network shares and started encrypting files under the authority of the stupid user.
Likely the user will get their hand slapped, and bricks will rain down on the heads of the IT people. It's hard to blame the users, even w
It's all about me. (Score:2)
yeah, that's the problem here. When we know there's an issue we immediately think of our own self-interests rather than maybe just curtailing our activity a bit.
A virus hits, let's buy up TP and sanitizers in large quantities even though we can't use that much in six months.
A gasoline pipeline shuts down because the front office can't bill and now we all need to fill up.
I'm still seeing neighbors' houses gutted and rebuilt because they didn't know how to shut off the water during a 0-degree hard freeze, but
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Well, hurricane season starts June 1st.
IT always is prudent to keep a full tank of gas and other supplies during hurricane season.
Too big to fail .... (Score:3)
Having spare capacity, having resilience is unused resources, inefficient, it will be punished by Wall Street. "Inefficient allocation of capital" they say. I don't know how valuing Telsa, and I am a serious EV fan, more than all other auto companies combined is efficient allocation of capital. Can't figure out how companies selling dollar bills at a discount are getting venture capital. But I digress..
Outsize salaries and bonuses of fund managers are justified saying they take the risk, so they get the reward.
Then shit like this happens, they don't go bankrupt. They are too big to fail. Govt has to step in and save their sorry asses. And they dont even pay taxes. They use every dodge in the book to escape taxes. No wonder the country is going to the dogs.
Let us blame the immigrants or transpeople or someone or anyone, anyone other than the corporations thieving us.
Us in the western states figure gas can't go east (Score:2)
Oh yeah, that means those of us completely unaffected will suffer gas price spikes.
Thanks Obama.
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I guess that means you're not as "completely unaffected" as you think.
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It doesn't. They're not sending fuel that far. But prices will likely rise here anyway because profits.
California actually has its own refineries. It also has its own fuel taxes. But "only" about forty cents of the fuel cost is due to additional taxes. Californians pay well more than a full dollar per gallon over what people in other states pay, and most of it is not due to taxes. We're just getting fucked, and our government has been no help in resolving the issue so I assume there are kickbacks in place.
Binarism: either we are all secure, or no one is. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Binarism: either we are all secure, or no one (Score:2)
This is the state of computer security now
BWAHAHAHA!
This is exactly the state of computer security today, what channel have you been watching?
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Maybe instead of glorifying people like Bill Binney who built the apparatus we should look for heros in the silent professionals who secure software with little to no reward. For every infosec gathering filled with swag toting groupies sitting around eating expensive korean barbecue there is one person making an honest effort to secure the internet, and they may get one free laptop, like if ever.
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No, this is not the result of backdoors and NSA spying. This is the effect of creating an entire environment/ecosystem. We grew it "organically", by tweaking here and there to meet our needs. Along the line, a bit of knowledge was lost/forgotten, and one tweak in a hundred had non-visible (until now) consequences. Combine a few of these "inconsequential" tweaks, and you have a massive security problem.
Our entire industry is in damage control mode, has been for over 10 years, and I see no signs of it getting
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Wait until you see how the power grid is (not) protected ...
Keep calm (Score:2)
Not so fast (Score:2, Interesting)
The reason the East Coast (specifically the Southeast) might be facing a gas shortage is not because of the ransomware attack, it's because of fat fucks driving fat SUVs [9cache.com] and filling their tank plus gas cans to the brim because they can't walk more than ten feet without getting exhausted and their vehicle only gets 10 miles to the gallon.
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The whole country is full of fat fucks driving light trucks. That's not especially true on the EC. It's true everywhere.
The ones in the southeast, specifically florida, need to occasionally stockpile gasoline to run their generators... during storm season. Which is probably what's going on there. Florida is just not suitable for year-round habitation.
There is no Gas shortage (Score:5, Insightful)
But Grandpa Joe's mouth piece just said there is no gas shortage. What am I supposed believe? My own eyes at the gas pumps or what Ol' Good to Go Joe's handlers say?
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There isn't a gas shortage. There is a distribution failure.
Further, the same kind of thing can happen to EVs, because our power infrastructure is so generally poorly secured.
Infrastructure is poorly secured due to the lack of consequences for executives when it is exploited, and that doesn't look to be changing any time soon...
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Are there lines at the gas pump? Are gas stations running out? It's a gas shortage. Now its caused by a distribution failure but its still a, shortage. Putting a pretty name on isn't going to change what it is.
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There are localized shortages but they were caused by the belief in a broader shortage, which does not exist. And they are temporary, in that people can only hoard so much gasoline, so the hoarding will stop soon and the localized shortages will end.
It was much easier for hoarders to cause a long-lasting shortage in TP, because you can stack quite a bit of it up without any special facilities.
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Don't bother fixing the line. Make them buy electric cars. Absolute win.
Good luck with your garden. Let's hope your homemade well hits water before you starve to death.
Of course, you might want to buy more bullets first...maybe some barbed wire...
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Good luck on that...ammo is still scarce and VERY expensive now...going on over a year now.
Keystone XL Alberta to Texas helps Texas to NJ? (Score:2)
Um, how does a purposed pipe from Alberta to Texas help a shutdown pipe that runs from Texas to New Jersey? Additionally, the Keystone XL pipe was for delivering crude to refineries and like product. The Colonial pipe sends fuel (gasoline/jet fuel/diesel/heating) and like products. I get that we're all thinking pipe, all things oil products, and what not. But that's not a conversion going from crude product to fuel product or fuel product to crude that's just a "flip switch" and call it done. Crude can
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They Keystone Pipeline was proposed to go to the Gulf of Mexico. Even if it were functional, that does not somehow create fuel in the Colonial Pipeline. We already CAN ship oil around the US if we must, but the capacity to do so is limited. Unless the Keystone pipeline was a redundant pipeline for the East Coast, the loss of the Colonial Pipeline would still be a problem.
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A helps B, B helps C, C helps D, D helps E.
Saying making A better has no effect on E is wrong.
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Except you need to prove that A helps B, B helps C, C helps D, and D helps E. If that doesn't hold the entire way along, then A does not, in fact, help E.
While the Keystone Pipeline might improve some aspects of gas distribution, it's primary focus is delivering crude to the Gulf of Mexico. More crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico refineries does not create gasoline on the East Coast. Unless we can show that the reason shipments are not going from the Gulf to the East Coast is due to supply constraints, then in
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Ding Ding. If Keystone was complete it still wouldn't be supplying oil to the area that is currently effected and would be unlikely to be of any help. It would be pumping oil to the Gulf of Mexico, which is not the East Coast.
That's like saying that because I-90 hasn't been expanded to 16 lanes that we aren't able to properly deal with an accident on I-5. They're two entirely separate freeways with separate destinations.