State of emergency in the USA. East Coast without fuel

The US government declared a state of emergency late Sunday, lifting the limits on road fuel transportation in an attempt to keep fuel supply lines open over fears of fuel shortages following the failure of the Colonial Pipeline. .

"This Declaration addresses the emergency conditions that create the need for immediate transportation of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other refined petroleum products and provides much needed relief," the Department of Transportation said. Jen Psaki, White House press officer, added that "as the administration works to mitigate potential supply disruptions following the Colonial Pipeline incident, @USDOT is taking action today to allow flexibility for truckers in 17 states." .

As the Administration works to mitigate potential disruptions to supply as a result of the Colonial Pipeline incident, @USDOT is taking action today to allow flexibility for truckers in 17 states. https://t.co/mILRtlhjkP

– Jen Psaki (@PressSec) May 9, 2021

The decision lifted limits on road fuel transportation to alleviate the fallout from the continued closure of the Colonial pipeline, which carries nearly half of the fuel consumed on the US east coast, following a ransomware cyber attack on Friday.

The decision comes as the government rushes to address the fallout from the closure of Colonial, the largest transportation pipeline for refined goods in the United States, which transports 2.5 million barrels of fuel per day from Gulf Coast refineries to markets. such as Atlanta, Washington and New York.

If the pipeline is not reopened quickly, the impact on prices could become more severe in the coming days, said Patrick De Haan, head of oil analysis at data provider GasBuddy. "We are realizing that gravity is perhaps worse than we expected," said De Haan. “There is still some breathing room, we are starting to run out. But Monday, Tuesday if there is no news, you know we are dealing with something quite significant “.

Practically the risks are those of a small oil crisis on the entire east coast of the United States, with stagflationary phenomena, and an increase in fuel prices expected to be around 4%. Evidently, the cyberattacks on the facilities of the Colonial pipeline were much more serious than initially thought. This phenomenon highlights the extreme fragility of US logistics infrastructures, at the mercy of organized groups of hackers who, in this case, have managed to interrupt an essential network for the American industrial system.

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The article State of emergency in the USA. East Coast without fuel comes from ScenariEconomici.it .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/stato-di-emergenza-negli-usa-east-coast-senza-carburante/ on Mon, 10 May 2021 06:00:51 +0000.