State gets waiver to help gasoline supply

Governor Sonny Perdue’s office says the waiver of a clean-burning fuel requirement should help "somewhat" in the aim to boost supplies of gasoline in a 45-county area of the state. Tuesday, federal environmental officials granted Perdue’s request for the waiver, which extends through October 12th. It applies to a swath of counties from the Alabama state line to the north Georgia mountains. The waiver allows more of the "dirtier"-burning gas to flow either through pipelines, or to arrive by truck delivery from as far away as Ohio and Pennsylvania. Many gas stations in certain pockets of the state, especially metro Atlanta, have been running dry. The gas outages have sparked long lines at stations with supplies on-hand. The gas shortage is a direct effect of recent hurricanes in the Gulf. Officials say it could take another week or two for some refineries to get up-and-running to full capacity.