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City, State May Pool Fuel If Crisis Worsens

Posted on: Friday, 2 September 2005, 00:00 CDT

Sep. 1--Mayor Bob Coble will meet with Columbia officials this morning to prioritize the city's dwindling gasoline supply.

State officials also will discuss pooling fuel for law enforcement and other needs should supplies run low over the holiday weekend.

Education Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum, meanwhile, said her agency's reserve diesel fuel supplies should keep buses running through next week.

The meetings were scheduled as gasoline suppliers informed government leaders that deliveries would be disrupted in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Coble said the city's supplier told him Wednesday afternoon that pipeline problems were limiting access to fuel.

"We may get half of our normal allotment," the mayor said. That affects gasoline used by police, garbage collection and some emergency vehicles.

State Law Enforcement Division Chief Robert Stewart said the Highway Patrol expects to have enough fuel heading into the Labor Day weekend.

"We are checking the gas supply at SLED and made some arrangements to get some more gas to see that there won't be any problems," he said.

This morning, the heads of state agencies are expected to take part in a conference call to discuss pooling gasoline among the departments of Transportation, Natural Resources, SLED and Highway Patrol if supplies during the weekend get dangerously low.

"At this point, I have not heard that the gas is about to run out," Stewart said. "We're certainly making arrangements."

The Education Department's diesel suppliers told Tenenbaum Wednesday they were limiting shipments to the state's 44 regional bus shops to 33,000 gallons per day -- half what is used daily -- because the two pipelines supplying the majority of the region's diesel and gasoline were shut down in Katrina's wake.

"Even with the reduced shipments of diesel that we're facing, we have enough fuel reserves on hand to get us through this school week and next week, too," Tenenbaum said in a statement.

Schools get a break because Monday's Labor Day holiday means buses already were scheduled to be idle.

Other state agencies, though, are being asked by Gov. Mark Sanford to limit travel and curb unnecessary trips.

State agencies that do not have their own fuel supplies are issued fuel cards to purchase fuel at gas stations. Those agencies are facing the same fuel shortages as the general public, said Michael Sponhour, spokesman for the State Budget and Control Board.

Staff writer Aaron Gould Sheinin contributed to this article

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Copyright (c) 2005, The State, Columbia, S.C.

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Source: The State (Columbia, S.C.)

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