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.

State gasoline supply still uneven

Some Georgians are still dealing with spotty supply of gasoline at some stations across the state. Officials say refineries in the Gulf are still ramping-up production from disruptions caused by hurricanes over the past month. The current average for a gallon of regular unleaded this morning in Georgia stands at $3.97--that is down 2-cents from yesterday, but it still is 23-cents higher than the national average. The high price in Georgia is in the Columbus area, with an average of $4.04 a gallon.

Fort Benning, Stewart in biofuels pilot program

Fort Benning, Fort Stewart and four other bases across the United States, have been selected to take part in a national pilot program to convert wood chips and cardboard into diesel fuel.

The military installations will take part in a two-year program sponsored by the Department of Defense Energy Security Command.

The project will install truck-sized converters that turn the post's waste products into fuel for combat vehicles.

Other posts participating in the pilot are Fort Drum, N.Y.; Fort AP Hill, Va.; and Fort Lewis, Wash.

(The Associated Press)

Georgia agriculture commissioner says gas pump inspectors are short staffed

The state budget crunch is hitting those folks who inspect the gas pumps across Georgia.

Complaints against gas stations who are allegedly shorting customers typically go up along with the gas prices.

There were more than 1100 complaints last year.

And that's consuming the time of the Georgia Department of Agriculture's inspectors, who officials say are already short-staffed.

That's taking time away from routine inspections, which can prevent or identify problems with the pumps, says Tommy Irvin, the state agriculture commissioner. And problems with the pumps can result in discrepancies between the price and the amount of gas coming from the pump.

"We're understaffed to the point that I don't think we're able to give the people what they want," says Irvin. "What we're faced with when you give 80 percent time allotted for your employees for checking complaints, you have 20 percent of your time left to do routine inspections. That's not as frequent as it needs to be."

But there's a hiring freeze for state employees. And Governor Sonny Perdue and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle are calling for possible budget cuts this year ranging from 3.5 percent to ten percent.

The agriculture department has a hotline for people suspecting a problem with a gas pump. That number is (404) 656-3605.

Gallon of gasoline average continues to fall

The average for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline continues to fall in Georgia as it does around the nation. In Georgia, the average this morning according to AAA stands at $3.74 a gallon. Around the state, the lowest average for a gallon can be found in Columbus--$3.67. The highest average is in Albany--$3.80 for a gallon of regular unleaded.

Jackson Co. OK'd for cheaper gas

An east Georgia county has the green-light to become the first in the state to sell gasoline to its cities at cheaper prices.

The state Department of Revenue says Jackson County can buy gasoline at a bulk-rate. State officials say the county can then sell the gas to its nine cities and towns.

The savings of about 20-cents a gallon will give local governments some breathing room in their budgets to help cover rising operating costs for police and other city vehicles.

John Ward is manager for the city of Jefferson, the county seat:

"It will definitely allow us to exercise expanded options. But at the same time anything we can do moving forward to make sure that we’re using tax dollars as efficiently as we possibly can we’ll be monitoring that and adjusting accordingly".

Ward says the cheaper gas should be flowing into their city cars and trucks in a few weeks.

South Georgia gas pump investigation resolved

A lawyer for the owners of two south Georgia truck stops says the facilities did not rig gas pumps that shorted customers gasoline. Last month, state agriculture officials stepped-in to close two Cisco Travel Plazas on Interstate-95. Officials said customers were getting a quart less for every five gallons bought. The truck stops' lawyer says vandalism to gas pumps is the reason customers got less gas than what they bought. The station owners paid the state 250-thousand dollars in fines--other fines will be waived if there are no problems for two years.

State gas tax goes up two cents

The new month brings bad news for Georgia drivers--record high gas prices at the pump are going up. The state's gas tax jumps 2 cents a gallon today.

This is an automatic adjustment of the motor fuel sales tax that occurs when gasoline prices rise or fall 25-percent from a preset average. The tax hike goes from 15.2 to 17.3 cents a gallon. Another hike in the gas tax is likely on July 1st, when Georgia does its twice-a-year recalculation of the tax. The average price of gasoline is over 3-dollars a gallon.