DAVID GREENE, HOST:
If you live in the Southeast and you drive a car, you might be feeling the impact of a gasoline pipeline leak in Alabama. Some gas stations have run dry. Prices are going up. From member station WABE in Atlanta, Johnny Kauffman reports.
JOHNNY KAUFFMAN, BYLINE: Marsha Houston visited two stations before finding one that would sell her gas.
MARSHA HOUSTON: Evidently, the shortage is real. So this was my experience today.
KAUFFMAN: In Georgia, the average gas price jumped 20 cents over the last week. Prices are going up in other states as well. And Southeastern governors have issued executive orders reinforcing laws prohibiting price gouging.
HOUSTON: I think the prices are outrageous, of course.
KAUFFMAN: The Colonial Pipeline Company estimates its line from Houston to New Jersey deliveries 40 percent of the East Coast's supply. Federal regulators ordered the pipeline stop operation until it can secure the leak. For now, Colonial says it's working to bypass the problem area.
Rob Desai is an energy analyst at Edward Jones. He says the leak started a domino effect across the Southeast and the East Coast.
ROB DESAI: Once the pipeline goes down, these offshoot pipelines don't have the supply. The storage tanks start to go down. And there's not enough truckers to move from storage to the gas stations.
KAUFFMAN: Thanks to states of emergency around the region, truckers can work longer hours to deliver fuel. Some suppliers are reportedly shipping gas from Houston to New York by sea.
For NPR News, I'm Johnny Kauffman in Atlanta. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
