Why I love to blog: I mentioned this just the other day.
Now Argus Media reports:
An expected surge in visitors
for the 21 August eclipse helped send Portland, Oregon, suboctane
gasoline prices to a four-month high yesterday.
Portland suboctane
gasoline ... buoyed in part by anticipation of
increased traffic to Oregon to glimpse the first US coast-to-coast
eclipse in 99 years. The full eclipse is expected to pass over a large
part of the state just south of Portland.
Expectations
of upcoming maintenance at a refinery in the Pacific Northwest have
also bolstered prices, traders said, but many attribute the daily gains
in the Portland gasoline market to anticipation of increased fuel demand
from eclipse visitors.
As many as 1.5mn additional people could
be in Oregon for the eclipse beyond normal summer traffic, an Oregon
State Police spokeswoman told Argus.
"This is incomparable to increased visitors during holiday periods," she said. "I cannot think of anything else like this."
Pipelines,
refineries, terminals, delivery trucks and fueling stations are not set
up for what could be a 20pc increase in demand over a short period of
time.
"Maybe at an individual station, but
not a region," Lenard said. "Fuel is a huge concern. Markets have
adjusted much higher in the Pacific Northwest. I have heard that some
gas stations out there have quadrupled their plans for supply. This is a
very unique event."
A significant factor is the availability of tanker trucks to refill underground storage tanks, Lenard said.
"Fuel is not like an extra case of soda — you cannot just stick it in the back room," he said.
Gasoline
and diesel supplies may be "stretched thin" in Oregon communities near
the path of totality, auto club AAA Oregon said.
"Earlier in the
week, we had stations temporarily run out of fuel in central Oregon, and
that is the area that seems to be the most impacted by the eclipse," a
AAA spokesman said. "This is like a 4 July holiday weekend and a snow
event all rolled into one, with the kind of traffic gridlock we are expecting."
On 21 August the eclipse will cast a 70-mile shadow across 14 US states, ranging from Oregon to South Carolina.
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