Gov. Perdue needs strategic reserve for his brain

(I know this isn't exactly local .... but the local effects warrant a posting here, I hope)

Traveling through Europe, Governor Perdue took time to offer a recommendation to help Georgia out of its gasoline shortage. He asked President Bush to release oil from the strategic reserve.

Now, I don't know what the Governor drives, but my car doesn't run very well on crude oil. We have a shortage of gasoline in Georgia that is caused by our primary source, refineries in the Gulf (primarily Houston) area, not shipping adequate quantities to us. The supply is reduced because refineries were shut down due to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, and are slow to restart due to damage and lack of electricity. The system handled the loss of several Louisiana refineries after Gustav, but these were not back to full production when Ike took more than a dozen more refineries off line.

Admittedly, some refineries have asked for, and received shipments from the Stategic Reserve, in the normal process of replacing shipments they were having trouble receiving. All in all though, there is no shortage of crude coming to the US. Crude prices are down almost $20 since Ike hit. Its gasoline we need, and for that, we need the refineries back on line.

We also need better planning and vision from our government. Did nobody notice that so much of our gasoline was single-sourced? There has been no planning (until the past few weeks) for alternative supply chains to feed this state of ours. Nationally, too, the lack of vision to increase refining capacity (or the collusion) with BIG OIL to keep capacity low to keep prices up, contributes to the problem.

But our governor eases our minds: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Perdue said the gas panic was, in part, “self-induced” and that there was “ample fuel.” That's our governor, right on top of things.