ATLANTA — Georgia is now under a gasoline state of emergency. The state will not collect sales tax on gasoline and will enforce anti-price gouging regulations as the colonial pipeline works to get fuel flowing again after a massive cyberattack crippled much of their network.
Channel 2 Action News has had crew fanned out across the metro and found outages as stations were spotty.
While prices are going up, Gov. Brian Kemp signed an emergency order that may bring them back down temporarily.
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Ivan Miller told Channel 2′s Richard Elliot that he looked for gasoline all morning.
He finally found some at a Valero station on Thornton Road.
“It’s been rough,” he said.
[READ THE ENTIRE EXECUTIVE ORDER HERE]
Miller said he’s not upset at the gas retailers, he’s mad at the people behind the cyberattack that crippled the Colonial Pipeline.
“Once again, the world’s greed. And it’s ridiculous that you would subject people that don’t have nothing to do with what you want to do, to do something like this,” Miller said.
Elliot also spoke with Jillian Chafin on Tuesday after she spent the morning searching for gas and finally found some.
“I’ve been to four different gas stations today,” Chafin said.
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Elliot was with the governor Tuesday morning at PDK Airport when he announced he’d just signed an emergency order that runs through Saturday night.
It suspends the collection of state sales tax on gas in hopes of bringing down the price. It also prohibits gas retailers from price gouging and it relaxes some rules on trucking so tankers can get more gas to more retailers quickly.
Kemp said he’s urging people not to rush out and fill up every car and gas can they have because that will only make things worse.
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“We feel like it’s very temporary. You don’t need to go out and fill up every gallon tank you’ve got. Get what you need. Let everybody else get what they need. Get to work, you know, do the things that you need to do,” Kemp said.
Remember, higher gas prices don’t necessarily mean price gouging. Gas retailers are allowed to raise prices to cover how much extra they’re paying for gas.
The emergency order expires Saturday night when Kemp hopes the problem will have passed.
Cox Media Group
