October 01, 2008
www.northfulton.com
ALPHARETTA - Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle expected Georgia's gasoline shortage to be over by the end of this week as the loosening of clean air fuel requirements allowed the metro Atlanta region to tap into a larger supply of gas.
Cagle, speaking to the Alpharetta Rotary Club at its regular meeting Friday morning at Alpharetta Presbyterian Church, started his talk about the state and its budget woes before answering a question about the gas crisis from Phil Baldwin, president of Security Bank of North Fulton.
"There's no question that here in our state we've experienced a relative shortage of fuel. We've all witnessed the long lines that citizens have been experiencing and the number of gas stations that have simply been out of fuel," Cagle said.
He said a natural disaster was the cause, but the state didn't anticipate this degree of a problem when Hurricane Ike hit most of the Texas gulf coast.
"But the real challenge in our state is that we have a low sulfur mandate because of non-attainment. It's really what we call a boutique type of fuel. Other states around us don't have that," Cagle said.
The region is under Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) clean air attainment regulations that require this specialized "boutique" fuel only produced for the Atlanta area. The EPA's agreement to a waiver to use "ordinary" low-sulfur gas will help, Cagle said.
As refineries in the Gulf Coast continue to come online, production continues to increase.
"I'm encouraged, I believe really within about five days we should experience some real results and you should see some changes at the pumps," Cagle said last week.
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