Palmetto State gas prices topped the $3 per gallon mark for the first time this week, but in some places the price has skyrocketed by more than 80 cents a gallon since Monday to $3.22 or higher. A side effect of a tight supply of gasoline may be felt throughout Beaufort County this Labor Day holiday weekend as businesses face the potential of tourists staying home.
Varying messages may be responsible for the lines that formed at gas stations in Beaufort and elsewhere in South Carolina on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Sims Floyd Jr., the executive director of the South Carolina Petroleum Marketers Association, said in The New York Times on Thursday that the worst was yet to come. "We're facing a severe supply shortage very soon."
That panic was offset in the same story by information that the nation has a sufficient supply of gasoline for 20 days -- 194.4 million barrels of gasoline inventories. U.S. drivers consume about 9.3 million barrels of gas a day, according to energy experts.
The problem is the system isn't designed to handle everyone at the pumps at one time, Dan Pickering, president of Pickering Energy Partners, a Houston-based research firm, told The Times.
But Beaufort residents are angry at the cost of gasoline. Explaining why the price of unleaded regular gasoline jumped by 80 cents a gallon in Beaufort or skyrocketed to $5.89 per gallon in an Atlanta suburb would take a modern-day Solomon. It's an explanation that no one in business is likely to explain to the public's satisfaction. But S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster has said that he will prosecute anyone who breaks the law by hiking prices to an "unconscionable" level during a state of emergency. Unfortunately, that emergency doesn't exist in South Carolina.
Speaking to South Carolinians from his office on Thursday, Gov. Mark Sanford said that the gas supply on the coast is less of a problem than inland because much of the fuel is delivered through ports. That's little consolation to Beaufort-area residents who work on Hilton Head Island and must pay $32 for 10 gallons of gas to get there and back a couple of times.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday temporarily suspended pollution standards for all states for gas and diesel fuel, which may help to ease shortages. As gasoline supplies rise, the cost should drop, according to the experts.
The governor didn't take a collision course this Labor Day weekend with the tourism industry in Beaufort County and Myrtle Beach's Grand Strand, where officials were telling folks to come on down, enjoy the sun and the fun. Instead he took a more prudent course, encouraging residents to conservative as much fuel as possible in the next few weeks.
When Beaufort County officials in February extended funding from a 3 percent accommodations tax to the county's chambers of commerce, it didn't have in mind the peripheral effects a disaster elsewhere. But as Katrina exemplifies, the nation is connected economically in more ways than one.
In the meantime, maybe the money locals who can't afford gas to enjoy a long weekend elsewhere can invest the money locally. Alternatively, they could send the money to help people in Gulf Coast states.