Photoblogging Atlanta's Gas Panic

I'm calling it a gas panic right now because at the moment there are no shortages, so this could all blow over without too much hassle for those of us outside of the immediate areas of total devastation. I include that to keep things in perspective.

The first two pictures are from a BP station at Dekalb Industrial Way and N. Decatur Road in Decatur GA, where I live. Small, manageable lines, but keep in mind that today is the first day of "looming crisis", which will soon become "impending crisis" and which might then shift to become an "escalating crisis". At least according to CNN's genius headline writers, who never met a caps lock key they didn't love to press.

Here's an example of the types of price hikes we've seen just today. I put gas in my car three days ago for $2.67, and even today I filled up my tank during lunch in Midtown, where prices are always inflated, for $2.89. By the time I left work, things had changed.

Line and price board, from a place where you could still fill up for $2.89, but I doubt that was the price for the lowest grade when I passed it on my morning commute:

My girlfriend text messaged me from Little 5 Points to say that gas was $3.89 there. Speculation does things to markets, and at the moment that's all this is. Little lines and large increases in price.

Honestly, I don't see how the pipelines can be fixed before the area's reserves runs out, in about 8 days. That's when everything will grind to a halt because the suburbs may as well be 1,000 miles away if you don't have a car. It's not like mass transit runs to Lawrenceville. Interesting times these are.