Running on Empty

As in the UK, a major topic for discussion over this side of the Pond is the price of gas (aka petrol) - although this tends to be a general rant rather than the more specific focus on government taxation of petrol. I often gently remind our dear transatlantic cousins that they have it pretty good - indeed, they often are disbelieving when i tell them how the prices compare back home. It's $2.89 a gallon here which, roughly speaking (i.e. I can't be bothered to do the calculations exactly) is about 45p a litre. When i left the country two months ago, the prices there were about 82p a litre and, i can imagine, would only have gone up if they have changed at all.

This week, however, all bets are off with regards to gas thanks to Hurricane Katrina and her wanderings through the Gulf of Mexico. Y'see, apparently she's managed to affect oil production as she managed to come across a few oil rigs out there. This means that two of the major oil lines that serve New England (and us here on the way) have been affected. Now when they are due to start working again is anyone's guess (i suggested having an office sweepstake). Suffice to say, this has escalated rather quickly with queues forming at gas stations yesterday and reports today that the gas stations were going to be closing at noon, although others insisted this was illegal for them to do (how it can be illegal for a company to close it's outlets is beyond me but i didn't have the energy to argue). Anyway, it was certainly refreshing to see that the Americans can panic just as well as the Brits, if not better (it's said that people were going crazy to stock up on food supplies as well -as no gas, means no deliveries of course). Fortunately, the governer of South Carolina issued a statement to help calm things down - apparently there is no fuel shortage....yet. Everyone is being asked to be careful in order to conserve what they have. But in a country so reliant on cars, is that going to be possible? We'll have to wait and see.