One Bad Storm Could Leave America Scrambling For Fuel

America’s fuel supply has little room left to absorb a hurricane that knocks Gulf Coast refineries offline, according to federal data and energy analysts.

U.S. gasoline inventories were 6 percent below their five-year average for the week ending Oct. 2, and distillate stocks, which include diesel, were 12 percent below, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. Hurricane Isaias, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, had maximum sustained winds of 115 mph and was moving north toward the western Florida Panhandle at 17 mph Friday afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The Gulf Coast holds about 54 percent of the nation’s refining capacity, according to EIA data.

“We really don’t have much cushion,” Steve Milloy, a senior fellow at the Energy and Environment Legal Institute, told the DCNF.

Isaias had moved too far east to affect any refinery in Louisiana, Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, said in a statement to the DCNF. Lipow said a refinery that shuts down for a storm takes one to two weeks to restart if it is not damaged. (Read more from “One Bad Storm Could Leave America Scrambling For Fuel” HERE)

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